Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)
by Liquid
Summary: It's the moment you've all been waiting for! My powers have been taken away for what I did to Steve Burnside during his trial, and I will have to survive Resident Evil 3 in order to get them back. This is a re-write of the second story I did on this site back in 2002, so please read and review.
1. Ch 1 Karma

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 1: Karma**

Dust and sand were being kicked up as the jeep tore its way across the mojave desert, and Liquid was not enjoying this little trip at all. For he was not behind the wheel, nor was he in one of the passenger seats or even on the roof. He was actually about 30 feet behind the jeep, being dragged behind it along the harsh rocky ground by a rope that was tied to his ankles.

"I'll get you for this, you bastard!" He yelled.

"What's that?" The driver laughed. "You want me to go faster?"

The jeep accelerated, and Liquid was bounced around as the driver made sharp turns and did a few doughnuts before stopping so fast that Liquid left the ground. He flew through the air for a moment, only to smack into the back of the jeep, and he was trying to shake off the dizziness that followed as the driver got out.

"What's wrong, Liquid?" He asked as he walked over to him. "I thought you enjoyed the employment of creative torture. You've certainly been partaking in a lot of it lately."

He reached down and removed the rope from Liquid's ankles, and in responce Liquid pulled his legs in before kicking outward as hard as he could. Both feet slammed into the driver's chest, knocking him off his feet, but he bounced right back up before Liquid was even up all the way. Liquid dropped down to avoid being grabbed, and came back up with an uppercut, but the driver caught his fist and slowly overpowered him.

"People have been complaining about you, Liquid." He continued. "And this isn't the first time, either."

He pushed Liquid's fist away, and kicked him in the stomach before slamming his head into the jeep when he doubled over. Liquid fell to his hands and knees, but suddenly came forward while slamming his shoulder into the driver's stomach, managing to force him backwards several steps before they came to a stop.

"People are up in arms about what you did to Steve Burnside." The driver said. "Granted they are mostly girls who were about 13 when _Resident Evil Code Veronica _came out, but it still falls to me; Xing Li, to deal with these kinds of things."

Xing then spun Liquid around, grabbed him around the waist, and picked him up, leaning backwards until Liquid's head struck the ground. He tried to get back up, but Xing punched him in the side of the head and kicked him in the ass, making Liquid eat the dirt as he went down.

"You are obviously guilty of these crimes, and many more." Xing continued. "As punishment, you are hereby stripped of your abilitiy to control the world around you, and you shall be sent through, um... let's see... _Resident Evil 3_."

Thunder crashed as dramatic music began to play, and Liquid suddenly felt strange as all of his powers faded away. There was no way he was going to take this laying down, so he jumped up while running toward Xing to take a swing at him, but then he was somewhere else. The desert landscape was gone, replaced by a small hotel room, and Xing was gone as Liquid failed to stop himself before falling onto the bed. From the window, the sounds of gunfire and screaming could be heard throughout the city, and for a moment this confused Liquid, until he saw the sign on the door that read:

_Checkout Time is 12:00 PM._

_Please do not steal any room items._

_Thank you for choosing the Raccoon City Hotel._

Everything made sense now; Xing had transported him back in time to 1998 and set him down right in the middle of Raccoon City during the T-Virus outbreak. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, but without his special abilities he was just a normal human, and that meant that there was a chance he wouldn't be able to survive.

"No no, none of that." He said to himself. "Come on, Liquid, you've been playing _Resident Evil 3 _since the day it came out, and if anyone can get through it, it's you."

Now, the first thing he had to do was get some weapons and supplies, but there didn't appear to be any guns around him, so he would have to make something. It was one of the nicer hotel rooms with extra things like small appliances, so he picked up a toaster and put it inside a pillowcase that he found in the closet. That appeared to be the only usable things around, so he walked over to the door, only to have it kicked open towards him the moment he touched the knob.

The shock made him drop the homemade weapon as he stumbled backwards, and he gasped as a zombie wearing a housekeeper's uniform slowly walked in. She looked at him for a second, then down at the weapon he made, and finally groaned angrily as she pointed to the part of the sign on the door that said: _Please do not steal any room items._

"Oh, ok." Liquid said as he pointed to it. "You can keep it, I'll just find something else, ok?"

The zombie looked at him again, and then shook her head before roaring as she came forward. It was easy to duck down and avoid getting grabbed by her, and even easier to come back up with a punch that sent her stumbling sideways. Wasting no time, Liquid grabbed the homemade weapon and began swinging it over his head as the zombie recovered.

"Oh yeah." He taunted while swinging it faster. "I broke my brother's arm with one of these when I was 12, so let's see what I can do _now_."

The zombie came forward, but the swinging toaster strick her hand with a loud crack, and then it slammed into the side of her head, making her fall over sideways. Liquid swung it even faster as he prepared for the death blow, but then the pillowcase ripped, and there was the sound of glass shattering as the toaster flew across the room and out the window.

"Aw, shit." He grumbled as the zombie started to get up.

The now broken window gave him a possible escape route, so he ran over to it with full intent of jumping out, but had to stop himself as he realized that he was like five floors up. The zombie had recovered by this point and was coming toward him, so he quickly put the pillowcase down over her head before dropping down and kicking her legs out from under her. Her head smacked down on the side of the coffee table as she fell, and it appeared to be over.

"You have got to be kidding me." Liquid said as she started to get up.

The zombie was standing right in front of the window as she got up, so Liquid came forward and shoved her as hard as he could, making the zombie groan as she fell over the edge. A second later there was a satisfying _crunch_ followed by a car alarm going off, and Liquid decided that it was time to leave. So he walked out of the room and into the hallway where he gasped to see five more zombies chasing after some scared human survivors.

He was unarmed and in no way prepared to take on five zombies at once, so he quickly moved into a shadowy corner where hopefully no one would notice him until it was over.

"Hey, you!" One of the survivors yelled while pointing. "You, over in the shadowy corner trying to not get noticed! Help us! I'm talking to you, the human over in that corner right over there!"

The man's words turned into a scream as the zombies devoured him and the others, and then the monsters turned toward Liquid's hiding place. They groaned while starting toward him, and Liquid looked around for a way out. Both the elevator and stairway doors were behind them, so it appeared that he was trapped... that is until he saw his potential salvation... an open janitor's closet.

The zombies were already after him, but he was faster, allowing him to reach the closet and find what he was looking for: A large container of floor wax. With only seconds to spare, he opened the lid and spilled the contents into a puddle that spread in all directions, and the zombies immediatly lost their footing. They groaned as the fell to the floor, slipping and falling all over themselves each time they tried to get up. This was Liquid's chance, so he ran for the elevator, only to cry out as he lost his own footing and fell down just like them.

"Oh no!" He screamed as he tried to get up. "No, no, no, no!"

He and the zombies both continued to slip and slide as they flopped around like a fish on land, and even crawling was difficult as they each desperately tried to reach their target. Eventually Liquid managed to pull himself out of the puddle, but still kept slipping and stumbling because of the wax still on him. With great effort he managed to push the call button, and a few seconds later dragged himself into the open elevator just as the zombies were getting free of the puddle.

"Bye." Liquid said with a wave as he pushed the ground floor button.

The little bit of wax on him was hardening now, so he wasn't sliding as much as the elevator started down, but this was no time to relax. His punishment was just beginning, and he would have to make it through the whole city if he wanted to escape.


	2. Ch 2 The Quest Begins

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 2: The Quest Begins**

The rest of the floor wax had hardened, so Liquid had been able to peel the remains off of his clothes by the time that the elevator reached the ground floor. There was a soft ding right before the doors opened, and Liquid expected a hoard of zombies to be waiting for him, but to his surprise there was nothing. The sounds of gunfire and screaming could still be heard coming from outside, but this floor was completely empty.

"Alright." He said to himself while looking down the hall. "Weapon, weapon, need to find a weapon."

There was nothing of use at the reception desk, in the bathrooms, or even in the small dining room where... hold on a second, there was a bin filled with _Raisin Bran_, which he greedily helped himself to. This was probably not a very good time to eat, but Liquid was hungry, and most sane people would agree with him that _Raisin Bran _was the best shit ever.

He finished the bowl in record time, and was about to help himself to another, when a sound caught his attention. It was coming from back in the hall, so he got up and very quietly went to investigate. As he got closer, Liquid discovered that the sound was both metallic and had a pace to it as if someone were hammering something, and this gave him a sinking feeling as he saw that it was coming from the mechanical room.

"Only way to stop them." The man inside said to himself. "Gotta stop them all."

He had a metal pipe in his hands, and he was using it to repeatedly bash the furnace, focusing mostly on the gas lines. For a moment Liquid was too shocked by what he was seeing to react, but then his senses returned and he moved into the room. This man was obviously deranged and scared, so this called for only the most caring and sensitive approach. So he grabbed the pipe during the man's backswing, pulled it from his hands, and brought it down hard on the man's foot.

"What the fuck, dumbass?!" Liquid exclaimed as the man fell down screaming. "Are you blind, crippled, or crazy?!"

"Crazy?!" The man yelled back. "Crazy?! You're the one who's _crazy_! Oh God... I'm the only sane one left. The monsters close in on us as we speak, do you not see them?!"

The man pointed back down the hall, and Liquid looked, but saw nothing. The whole floor was still silent and empty, and he was about to ask what he was talking about, when his thoughts scrambled as the crazy man's foot slammed upward between his legs.

"Ha haaaa!" The crazy man laughed as Liquid fell to his knees. "Who's the dumbass now?!"

Liquid gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the metal pipe as he turned to end this moron's life, but this quest for revenge was brought to a grinding halt as he saw two very important things: The first thing was that one of the gas pipes had been damaged to the point of allowing a small stream of gas to escape, and the second thing was that the crazy man was now holding a zippo lighter.

"_Made you look, made you look_!" He sang as he tried to light it. "_Now this building's gonna cook_!"

Liquid gasped as he jumped to his feet while turning around, and the crazy man's laughter echoed through the halls as he ran for the front door. He had already sprinted down the hall, through the dining room, and past the reception desk by the time that the flash of light appeared, and a booming explosion went off at the same time that the flaming energy propelled Liquid right through the closed doors.

He hit the pavement hard and even rolled through a small barrier before coming to a stop in the middle of a small alley, and the first thing he saw was the entire hotel becoming engulfed in flames. For a few moments he just laid there while his ears rang, but then he began to hear something else: The familiar moan of approaching zombies.

"Gotta get up." Liquid groaned to himself. "Gotta get up... that crazy fucker's lucky he's already dead... or I'd kill him."

He got about half way to a sitting position, and considered laying back down, but then he saw them. There were about half a dozen of them shambling around, but those ones couldn't reach him because of the flaming wreckage. The problem came from the two coming from the other direction, and there was nothing in their path to stop their advance.

Using the pipe for support, Liquid slowly pulled himself to his feet just before the first zombie had him. He then leaned sideways to avoid being grabbed, and made a downward swing with the pipe that caved in part of the zombie's skull, causing the monster to collapse.

"There you go." He said to it while trying to shake off the dizziness. "You just lay there with your dead ass while I take care of your friend."

The adrenaline from killing the zombie was helping with the dizziness, and it was enough for Liquid to be able to swing the pipe at the second zombie's knees, making it fall down before he stomped it's nasty rotting head like Issac Clarke in _Dead Space_.

"Yeah, fuck all of you!" Liquid yelled as he stomped it again. "Can I get a _hell yeah_?!"

There were no living people around to grant his request, so he hung his head for a second before moving on. The danger appeared to be over for now, and there was a junction ahead where this alley met with another one that went left and right, so he climbed onto a couple of large wooden crates that were in the way, and stopped when he saw a maniquen in a store window. It was sitting in bright light, wearing a mini skirt with tube top and a long black coat.

"Seriously?" Liquid asked as he looked at it. "What is this, the hooker store? I mean, what kind of self-respecting woman would buy this? It looks like something out of Pretty Woman. Not that _I_ would mind if a woman wore it, but only if she was my girlfriend, or the daughter of someone I _really_ hate."

He stared at it for a few more seconds, and then looked both ways down the adjoining alley to see if any dangers awaited. It seemed to be clear from all sides, so he jumped down, only to scream as he suddenly found himself surrounded by zombies on all sides.

"Where the hell did _you_ come from?!" He exclaimed.

There were at least a dozen of them to both the left and right, and he considered going back over the boxes, but there were more coming from that way as well. He still had the pipe, so he swung it at the nearest crowd, only to have several of them grab the weapon and pull it from his hands.

"Oh, great!" Liquid yelled as he backed up. "That's just fucking great!"

He backed up to where he was against the wall, but then he felt it move a little. Turns out that he had backed up to a door, so he turned around and tried it, only to find that it was locked. He started to sweat as he kicked and shoulder-rammed the door to no avail, and the zombies were shambling ever closer until one grabbed him by the shoulder. In response, Liquid grabbed the zombie's arm and twisted it around behind the monsters back. He then slammed the creature's head into the door, causing it to open.

"Thanks." He said as he shoved the zombie toward the others.

This was his only chance to escape, so he ran blindly through the door and down yet another back alley as they creatures gave chase. Up ahead there was a set of metal double doors, and thnakfully they were unlocked when he reached them, so he ran through and slammed them shut as the zombies outside continued to hunt him.


	3. Ch 3 The Warehouse

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 3: The Warehouse**

It was nice to feel safe for the moment. As soon as Liquid had come through the metal double doors at the end of the alley, he slammed them shut and locked them with a convienient dead-bolt, and although they clawed and pounded at the door for several minutes, the zombies eventually lost interest and moved on.

"Ok, so far so good." He said to himself as he turned around. "I should be safe in here for the...

His words trailed off as he finished the turn, only to find the barrel of a pistol shoved into his nose as the hammer was pulled back.

"Um... hi." Liquid continued.

"Shut the fuck up!" The fat man on the other end of the gun yelled. "Get your dumb ass in here!"

He used his free hand to grab Liquid by the ear, and kept the gun where it was as he moved him further into the building that appeared to be a warehouse. There were cargo containers, small parts shelves, and even a foreman's office at the top of a set of metal stairs. But none of this information did him any good as the fat man pushed him up against one of the containers.

"Put your hands on the wall!" He yelled. "And don't you fucking move, or I'll shoot you in the ass 6 times!"

Liquid did as he was told, putting his hands on the wall as the fat man searched his pockets. However, there was nothing to be found, being that Liquid was carrying no weapons or items of any value.

"Are you fucking serious?!" The fat man continued. "I finally find someone to take supplies from, and its the poorest mother fucker on Seseme Street?! You better come up with something to give me, or I'm gonna skip your ass, and just shoot you right in the dick!"

"Alright, alright, relax." Liquid replied. "I have one thing, but its in the secret pocket of my jacket. You'll have to reach in and feel for it, alright?"

The fat man snickered at him, and then reached into the designated pocket; feeling around for a second, only to scream as he found a mouse trap on his fingers when he pulled it out. He moved the gun away so that he could free his hand, and Liquid wasted no time in elbowing him in the face while pulling the pistol out of his hands. He made an attempt to get it back, but Liquid hit him in the stomach with it before bringing it up across his jaw, sending the fat man stumbling backwards where he fell into a stack of paint cans.

"Don't shoot me!" He yelled as he put up his hands. "Please don't shoot me! I just lost my daughter to the zombies, and I went a little crazy, so please just...

"Silence!" Liquid interupted while keeping the gun on him. "I don't give a flying fuck about you _or_ your dead-ass ho of a daughter! Now piss yourself... God damn it, you better piss yourself or I'm gonna make you very unhappy!"

He fired a shot so that the bullet hit right next to the fat man's head, and then Liquid started laughing as a dark stain formed on the front of his pants.

"Ha, ha, you pissy pants little clown." Liquid continued. "Now renounce your God."

"I no longer believe in God!" The fat man immediatly yelled. "He... he's bullshit like the Tooth Fairy, the, um, Easter Bunny, and the, uh... Queen of England! Just please don't shoot me!"

The fat man just laid there sobbing on the floor amongst the fallen paint cans, and Liquid seemed to be speechless.

"Wow." Liquid finally said. "I can't believe you actually renounced your God... he's gonna be pissed when you meet him."

He then pulled the trigger, sending a bullet right between the fat man's eyes, and Liquid turned to go up the stairs by the time that the now dead man's arms flopped to the floor. It was nice to finally have a usable weapon, and he could only hope that there were more things that he could use in the foreman's office. Now, there _was_ a box of ammo for the pistol, but beyond that there was only a bunch of old shipping ledgers and an old typewriter.

"A typewriter, really?" He asked as he looked at it. "Who even had one of these things in the late 90's when this game came out? It's useless... it's ancient... it's...

He trailed off as he looked down at the fat man's body, and then smiled as he put a nearby piece of paper into the typewriter. Liquid chuckled to himself for a few seconds, but then regained his composure as he began to type:

TO WHOEVER FINDS THIS LETTER;

I HEREBY CONFESS TO BEING A USELESS FAT FUCK, AND THAT I ATE MY OWN DAUGHTER ALIVE AFTER I FOUND OUT THAT WE WERE BOTH SLEEPING WITH THE SAME MAN. I HAVE DECIDED TO TAKE MY OWN LIFE IN ORDER TO ESCAPE JUSTICE BECAUSE I AM A SISSIFIED COMMUNIST SHEEP-SHAGGER, AND I AM ALSO THE ZODIAC KILLER.

SIGNED, BOOTS THE CLOWN.

There was nothing else in the office, so he put the ammo box in his pocket, and then went back downstairs to the fat man's body where he tucked the 'suicide' note into the top of his shirt. There was only one other at the back of the place, so Liquid walked through it, only to find himself in yet another small back alley.

"What's with this place?" He asked as he walked. "This city's designed more like Italy than America."

So far he hadn't seen any more zombies, but he remained cautious during his exploration of this dead city, right up until the moment when a door on the wall flew open and struck him right in the mouth as a panicked looking man ran out of it while firing wildly.

"Aw, funky butt-lovin!" Liquid screamed as he held his mouth.

Suddenly his brain realized that he had just seen another survivor, and since the man hadn't been lying in wait for him, it must have meant that he wasn't a psycho. This was good news, since having more people would increase his odds for survival, and he was all set to follow the man, when a familiar groaning sound filled the air as some zombies shambled out of the same door.

"Damn it!" Liquid grumbled as he aimed his gun.


	4. Ch 4 Uptown Raccoon City

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 4: Uptown Raccoon City**

Turns out that it was a lot harder to deal with being chased down the street by a mob of zombies than the movies made it look, and Liquid learned this lesson quickly. More and more zombies came shambling out of crashed cars and damaged buildings as he ran for his life, and they only seemed to become more deturmined to catch him each time he turned back to shoot.

"Oh thank God, another human!" Another survivor exclaimed as he joined the run. "I was afraid I was the only one left... so what do we do now?"

"Let's split up." Liquid replied. "You go that way."

He suddenly pushed the other survivor sideways so that he stumbled before crashing into a pile of metal trash cans. His screams were pretty horrible to listen to as the first zombies grabbed him, but it did manage to distract the persuing horde long enough for Liquid to run through a door to a small but surprisingly untouched building. He bolted the door as the zombies finished with that other survivor, and stayed very quiet until they had all wandered off.

"Yep, good plan." Liquid said to himself. "Now what do we have here?"

This building was some kind of small fashion boutique where everything was neat and tidy in spite of the fact that there was a zombie outbreak happing everywhere else in the city. Most of the clothes on the racks and shelves seemed to be for women, but at the back there were five open changing room doors, each with a different outfit laid out on the bench. The difference was that not only were these for men, but they also just happened to be Liquid's size.

He took a look at his own torn and burned clothes, and then decided that maybe it was time for a change. So he looked into the rooms one at a time, and took a little time to think about it. The first one was a leather biker's outfit, the second one was an RPD police uniform, the third was a clown suit that Liquid quickly erased from his memory, the fourth was a Batman suit that he would have totally taken if not for his rule against capes, and the last one was something like what Leon wore in _Resident Evil 4_. He had always felt that the brown jacket in that game was awesome, so he changed into that outfit, and went over to the mirror to check himself out.

"Oh yeah." Liquid said while doing a muscle man pose. "Check it out, world; this is what awesome looks like. Can I get a _hell yeah_?!"

Again there was no one around to grant his request, so he hung his head for a second before grabbing his few posessions and leaving the boutique. Now that the horde had moved on, the streets of Raccoon City were deathly quiet. Liquid wanted to use this opportunity to head toward the edge of town, but a meshing of crashed cars, damaged buildings, and poorly constructed police barriers prevented him from doing so.

For a long time he walked down the empty streets looking for a shortcut to get out, but even the fire escapes were blocked, and then his thoughts were interupted as he heard what sounded like pistol fire. It was a little easier to see down the street from the top of the fire escape, and following the sound, Liquid saw that it was coming from the same panicked man that he had seen before.

"Get away from me!" The man screamed as he shot another zombie.

Once free of the ones that persued him, the man quickly ran into the nearest building, a place called Bar Jack, and Liquid climbed back down the fire escape in order to follow him. He had to kill another zombie or two of his own on the way, but then he ran through the door to the bar, and cried out in surprise as he was immediatly tackled to the floor by the zombie that was waiting right inside.

The pistol fell from his hands as they hit the floor, and he couldn't reach for it since it was taking both hands for him to keep the moaning zombie's teeth away from his face. It took some effort, but eventually Liquid was able to get his feet up under the zombie's stomach, and then he used all of his leg muscles to kick it away. The zombie was forced to its feet as it reeled backwards into the jukebox, and Liquid wasted no time in grabbing the pistol and putting several holes into both the zombie's head and the now sparking jukebox.

"Is it safe to come out now?" A timid voice asked once the noise stopped.

Liquid sat up in order to look toward where the voice had come from, and there to his dissapointment, hiding under the pool table was a frightened looking Brad Vickers. He kept looking around nervously as he crawled out from under the table, and Liquid got to his feet at the same time that he did. Of course, out of all the hardcore members of STARS that he could possibly run into, it had to be the chicken shit who abandoned Alpha Team in the first _Resident Evil_.

"I'd like to thank you for all your help just now." Liquid said as he offered his hand. "I don't know _what_ I would have done without you."

Brad shrugged sheepishly as he grabbed Liquid's hand, but then Liquid pulled him forward while ramming his knee into Brad's stomach. He then pushed him down and put his foot on his back while reloading his pistol.

"Leave me to die with a zombie, huh?" Liquid asked as he aimed down. "So where do you want it; in the ass or in the head?"

"Go ahead and shoot!" Brad replied. "He's coming for us, and we're both gonna die any way!"

Liquid was trying to decide whether or not he wanted to waste a bullet on this idiot, and that was all the distraction that Brad needed to roll out from under his foot and crawl toward the other door of the bar.

"He's after STARS members!" He continued as he got up. "There's no escape! And you should've seen what he did to the new guy! Oh man, I didn't even know something like that could be _done_ with a pipe-wrench!"

With that, Brad turned away and ran out the door, continuing to scream and rant while randomly firing with his own pistol until he got too far away to hear.

"Coming for _us_?" Liquid said to himself. "But I'm not a STARS member."

He wanted to ask Brad more about this situation, but the wimpy little chicken man was long gone, so Liquid decided to check around the bar to see if there was anything he used. The first thing he _used _was a couple shots of Captain to take the edge off, and then he looked behind the bar itself.

"Oh, there we go." He said happily as he reached underneath. "There we fucking _go_, son."

From under the bar he pulled a pump-action shotgun, and next to it was a large box of shells. So he put the pistol on his belt, dumped the shells into his other pocket, and now felt a little better about his chances for survival. After all, what was better to have during a zombie outbreak than a God damn shotgun? Well, maybe a grenade launcher... but what were the odds of finding something like _that_ laying around?

Satisfied that there was nothing else in the bar that he could use, except for one last shot of Captain, Liquid exited through the door that Brad used, and found himself walking along yet another deserted street. A few small fires had broken out, blocking a few of the paths he could have taken, since it wasn't like he carried a fire hose around with him, so there was really only one way to go.

Soon the small street ended at a junction where he could see a crashed and burning semi truck to the right, so he went left and could see a broken fire hydrant in the distance. The cause of this break appeared to be the police car that had crashed into it, and of course, Liquid searched it until he found some more ammo for both of his weapons.

"Hmm, my pockets are getting full." He said as he stepped away from the police car. "I need to find a sidepack or something, but where would I...

His words trailed off as he looked just a little further down the road and saw a large metal gate with an obvious RPD emblem engraved at the center. Of course, the police station! Surely they would have something else he could use in order to survive this nightmare. So he picked up the pace a little while watching out for more zombies, but none had appeared by the time he stood in front of the gate.

"Alright, made it." He said to himself as he pushed the heavy gate open. "Looks like my luck is finally changing."


	5. Ch 5 Nemesis

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 5: Nemesis**

All was deathly quiet as Liquid walked across the police station courtyard, and he was just about to go inside, when the sound of the metal gate behind him opening reached his ears. He quickly turned around to see Brad stumble into the courtyard, and as usual he looked scared out of his mind, but he also appeared to be injured.

"H... help!" He called as he fell to his hands and knees. "We're in deep SHIIIIIIIIT!"

The last word of his sentence became a long drawn out scream as suddenly a large and very frightening creature in a blackleather outfit dropped out of the fricken sky. It looked kind of like a zombie, but was over 7 feet tall, and built like a linebacker. It's face was deformed with its lips pulled back to perminantly expose its teeth, and the ground shook a little as it walked toward Brad.

"STARS!" It roared.

Brad tried to crawl away, but the creature grabbed him by the back of the jacket; effortlessly lifting him off the ground with one hand while starting to walk toward the fence.

"Oh God, help me!" Brad screamed as a dark urine stain formed on the front of his pants. "I don't wanna die a virgin!"

The monster stopped walking and just looked at him. It then seemed to chuckle at him for a second before lifting Brad up really high, and slamming him down on one of the bars of the wrot-iron fence so that the metal spike went so far up his ass that it actually came out his mouth. Brad was obviously dead before the massive creature had finished turning around to face Liquid, and it started forward, but then stopped.

"STARS?" It asked as it pointed to him.

"What, STARS, me?" Liquid stammered as he started to back away. "Hell no, not me, no sir, no STARS members here. So, um... I guess you have a lot of work to do, and, uh, don't let me keep you."

He was only a few yards from the police station door, and it appeared that the monster had lost interest in him, so he turned around to go in, but then something fell out of Liquid's pocket. It was some kind of card case, and he turned back around to pick it up, but the monster beat him to it. It brought it up to its face, and opened it, growling a little as it turned the case around for Liquid to see.

"You have got to be shitting me." He said in disbelief as he looked at it.

Inside the case was an RPD STARS identification card that looked brand new, and on the left side was an unflattering picture of Liquid passed out drunk with things drawn all over his face, including a message on his forehead that said: _Xing rules_.

"STARS!" The monster roared as it dropped the card case.

Liquid tried to run, but it grabbed him by the shirt and lifted him into the air. There was no time to grab one of his guns, so he did the first thing he could think of, which was to poke the monster in the eye. It growled in surprise as it dropped him, and Liquid immediatly pulled his leg back before slamming his foot up between the monster's legs. However it was Liquid who cried out in pain over how badly that hurt his foot.

"STARS!" The monster roared while grabbing for him again.

The pain in his foot was what saved him from being grabbed again, since he fell on his ass just as the hand was swiping for him. Liquid then unslung the shotgun from his back and shot the monster right in the face. Its deformed head tilted back a bit as it roared more in anger than pain, and Liquid used this moment of distraction to run for the door.

Thankfully it was unlocked, so he ran inside, slammed the heavy door shut, and slid down the locking bar just before the monster would have reached him. The doors shook several times, from what was probably the monster punching them or something, but the good news was that they were holding. Again and again the monster hit the doors, with Liquid finding himself unable to do anything but stand there stupidly, and then the attack stopped.

Silence returned to the world as the hits on the door ceased as suddenly as they had started, and after about a minute Liquid realized that the monster was gone. He was shaking a bit as he sunk to his knees, and after catching his breath, his hands were still shaking a bit as he put one more shell into the shotgun.

"Think happy thoughts." He said to himself. "Happy thoughts, happy thoughts... um, a blowjob from Mila Kunis... yeah, there's a happy thought."

This helped him to calm down a bit, atleast enough to stand back up and take a look at his new surroundings. He was in the gigantic main hall of the police station, and most of it was wrecked. The front desk and computer were smashed, probably from the zombie battle, and all of the side doors were boarded up except for one. This made it really easy to decide where to go, but it didn't help his nerves very much.

"So I'm a God damn STARS member now, huh?" He grumbled to himself as he walked toward the door. "Of course I am, why wouldn't I be? I'll get you for this, Xing."

The door was unlocked, so he went through and found himself in a large open room that had been completely ransacked. Papers and files were scattered along the floor, cabinets were left open, and there were a few things like soda bottles and party hats near the door that made him think that there had been some kind of party going on.

"Maybe I should've taken the RPD uniform." Liquid said to himself. "Apparently these guys really know how to party."

As always there were a few zombies shambling around, and not wanting to waste any of his precious shotgun shells, he shoulder-slung the weapon and took out the pistol. The zombies were easy to take down in a room this size, requiring only a single shot to take each one down, and then Liquid reached a small corner office toward the back. The first thing he saw inside was some more ammo for both of his weapons, which he took greedily, and the second thing he noticed was a dead body as he tripped over it.

Liquid fell on his face next to the dead police officer, scattering the newly found ammo as he went down, and the only good thing about this situation was that there was no one around to hear how loudly he screamed from the sudden shock. He calmed down a bit once he realized that the dead guy wasn't a zombie, and once his hands stopped shaking he was able to pick up the ammo off the floor.

"Happy thoughts." He said to himself again. "Gotta keep thinking happy thoughts.

So there he was alone, trapped in a city of the dead, surrounded by zombies, and now being hunted by one of the most terrifying creatures that had ever been imagined. Needless to say, his night was not going well, and from playing this game back in the 90's, he knew that the nightmare had only just begun. So taking a deep breath, he left the corner office, and headed toward another door that would lead him deeper into the RPD.


	6. Ch 6 Raccoon Police Department

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 6: Raccoon Police Department**

Only the soft hum of flourescent lighting was there to greet Liquid as he went through the next door, and now he found himself inside of an evidence room. A row of lockers lined the wall, and ever on the hunt for things he could use, Liquid decided to go through them. There were no keys laying around, and it would not have been smart to waste bullets, so he did the next best thing: There was a small hammer on the floor next to some maintenance tools, so he picked it up and bashed the padlocks one by one.

"Ok, let's see." He said as he put the hammer on his belt. "We've got drugs, incriminating photographs, sworn testomonies, and... a key to the STARS office? What the hell's it doing in here?"

The key was the only thing of use, so he pocketed it, and went through the next door which led down yet another hallway with some boarded up doors. At the end of the hall was a staircase with a small door underneath it, so Liquid went through the small door first. It opened into a dimly lit room that contained a table for developing film, and he was about to leave since he had no film, but then he stopped as he noticed something on the edge of the table.

"And what do we have here?" He asked as he picked it up.

It was a recently developed photograph of STARS rookie member Rebecca Chambers in an overly sexy basketball outfit. After careful consideration, Liquid decided to keep the photo, for, um, personal reasons, and with that he exited the darkroom. The only way left to explore was the staircase, so he went up, and immediatly encountered a single zombie who was a lot fatter than the rest. It was wearing a suit and tie with a police badge that identified him as the Chief, so Liquid felt especially honored when he put one between the zombie's eyes.

Passing a silly looking statue of some guy holding up his arm as he put another bullet in the clip, Liquid rounded a corner and saw a large STARS emblem engraved into the door at the end of the hall. It was a good thing he had found the key earlier, because it would have really pissed him off if he had to backtrack anymore than necessary, and the key was now useless, so he discarded it after opening the lock.

The STARS office was comprised of five desks, each with items reflecting the personality of the owner scattered about on top, including a lockpick sitting on top of Jill's desk, which Liquid quickly put into his only remaining pocket. It was strange that there were only five desks, since the combined total of Alpha and Bravo teams added up to about twelve people, but this was quickly forgotten when Liquid's eyes fell upon the weapon locker.

"Oh yes." He said excitedly as he opened the latch. "Give me a magnum... give me a grenade launcher... give me...

His words trailed off as he pulled open the metal door, and found that there were no more weapons inside. Well, there was even more ammo for the weapons he already had, and he grumbled in dissapointment as he grabbed the boxes, but then the dissapiontment melted away when he saw the other items stacked on the upper shelf. As he hoped, there was a sidepack where he could store his extra ammo, but there was also a full set of load carrying equipment that went over his body like a harness.

"That's more like it." He said as he took the items. "Good thing you had those, or I know a certain gun safe that would be going out the window."

The side pack was put on his hip, and as planned, he dumped all the extra bullets and shells inside. He also now had a holster for his pistol that was tucked under his shoulder, and several small pockets for whatever items he came across. This certainly made it easier to carry things around, and he was about to leave the STARS office when the large radio console in the back of the room began to beep.

"Hola, sexy mamma's." A man with a heavy hispanic accent said as latin music began to play. "I know the city's been a drag lately, but if you wanna forget your troubles, then come on down to the Grill 13. All you gotta do is be a sexy little thing with at least a B size bra, and you can have your way with me, Carlos, the badass mercenary and part time half-naked pool boy, and it's half price if you bring your cute sister with you, so let's...

"Carlos, what the fuck!" A deep russian voice interupted as the music stopped. "This is supposed to be a rescue mission, but _we're_ gonna need rescuing if your little song shows the zombies where we...

Suddenly there was a loud crash, followed by screams and gunfire as the moans of zombies got closer until the communications console went dead. Liquid just stood there looking at it for a few seconds before shrugging and walking out of the STARS office. Since he had cleared out the few zombies that had been roaming the halls, it was a breeze for him to go back down the winding halls, and down the stairs. However, the moment he reached the first floor, the window on the wall right behind him exploded as the giant monster he had fought earlier dove into the building.

"STARS!" It roared while standing up.

Liquid unslung his shotgun as he spun around to hit it a few times before it could finish getting up, but then he gasped in horror as he saw what the monster was carrying a kind of rocket launcher on its arm. Slinging his shotgun and turning to run down the hall as fast as humanly possible, he was almost to the door when a small rocket flew past him. It struck the wall, causing a small explosion that actually blew Liquid right through the door that he was trying to escape through.

"STARS!" The monster roared again.

Liquid crashed into the row of evidence lockers, and hit the floor just as they fell forward just enough to get stuck in what was left of the doorway. Liquid was left a little dizzy from the hit he had just taken, and he looked back just in time to see the monster appear in the doorway. The combination of fear and adreniline pumping through his veins allowed to scramble through the next door as the monster smashed the lockers that now blocked its way, and Liquid slid under one of the long tables just as the creature came in after him.

"STARS." The monster said angrily as it could be heard reloading its rocket launcher.

Then it began to walk around the room, it's big feet making the whole room shake a little as it stomped its way toward the small corner office. It was only a matter or time before it found him, so as quietly as he could, Liquid started to crawl toward the open door that would lead him back to the main hall. A few seconds later the monster moved out of the corner office, resuming its search, and Liquid knew that it would be hard to outrun the monster even if he reached the door, so he looked around and got an idea.

There was a fire extinguisher on the wall next to the monster, and Liquid still had the hammer on his belt. His plan was to jump out from under the table, toss the hammer with all the persision of a ninja, and hit the top of the extinguisher. This would cause a smoke screen that would leave the confused monster unable to see while Liquid would be able to walk out the door at his leisure.

"Yeah." He whispered as he took the hammer off his belt. "This is gonna be epic."

Following his plan to the letter, Liquid jumped out from under the table and tossed the hammer at the fire extinguisher. However, his aim was just a little off, making the hammer bounce off the monster's back harmlessly instead. The creature took its time turning around, and then it's grin seemed to get a little bigger as it aimed the rocket launcher.

"JESUS CHRIST, HELP ME LORD!" Liquid screamed as he ran for the open door.

The monster fired again just as Liquid was running through the door, and the rocket hit the door frame, causing another explosion that sent Liquid rolling and bouncing across the floor of the main hall. The monster was reloading again while walking toward what was left of the door, but the rocket had done a lot more damage than it seemed. Just as it was walking through, there was a crashing sound as the ceiling collapsed, and the monster let out a surprised roar that was cut off as it was burried under the rubble.

Silence once again fell over the RPD, and Liquid just laid there catching his breath while his mind was trying to realize what had just happened. Either way, the monster was down, so he groaned while using the damaged front desk as support to pull himself to his feet.

"And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen." Liquid said as he looked at the rubble. "This leaves the final score as _Nasty Monster _0, and Liquid... still alive."

He put his hands on his hips while throwing his head back with laughter, but this was stopped by a low growling sound as some of the rubble began to shift. Not wanting to wait for it to free itself, Liquid decided that the best course of action was to run away, so that was what he did. He unbarred the heavy front doors in order to exit the police station, and then he ran back across the courtyard and out the gate.

"Gotta get away!" He exclaimed to himself. "Gotta get away!"

The way he had first come was a dead end, and going back into the RPD was not an option, so he took the road where he had seen the burning semi truck. Turns out that he would have been able to run past it the whole time, since it was not quite touching the wall, and there was a metal door in his path that was unfortunately locked. Liquid was about to start panicking, but then he reached into one of the small pouches on his harness, and sighed with relief as he took out the lockpick.

It was a really good lockpick, so the door was opened in a matter of seconds, and now Liquid was free to move into the next part of this dead city.


	7. Ch 7 Downtown Raccoon City

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 7: Downtown Raccoon City**

Most of Raccoon City appeared to be a network of really small back alleys, and it actually reminded Liquid more of the older cities in Europe than a modern one in America. In fact, the design was so ridiculous that there was no physical way for some of the crashed cars that blocked the other pats to be where they ended up, since a lot of them were bigger than the paths they were supposidly driving down.

Up ahead he saw someone sitting down near some trash cans, and he was about to shoot the man when he got closer, but then Liquid realized that he would not become a zombie thanks to the large bullet hole in his head. The dead man also wore an olive-drab kind of military uniform, which made Liquid hope that he had an assault rifle or something that he could use in case that monster came back, but all there was in the man's pockets was a diary. Now if there was one thing that Liquid respected, it was the personal privacy of others, so he immediatly opened the diary and began to read. It said:

_I was on death row in Micronesia when they offered me my freedom, so I figured that I owed the company something for getting me out of jail. Joining the UBCS meant that I might have to fight zombies and stuff someday, but it was better than sitting in a jailcell with a 300 pound fiance named Duke, I can tell you. None of us ever thought that we would actually have to deal with monsters like this, so instead of being a man and helping my fellow Soldiers, I have decided to sit over here and pull the trigger myself. Whoever finds this, please tell my family that I'm sorry, because I know my spirit cannot rest until they know._

"Good plan, dude." Liquid said as he kicked the diary down a nearby stormdrain. "You didn't want to die, so your solution was to kill yourself? Fuck you _and_ your family."

He continued on through the winding alley for another few minutes without incident, and finally the area opened up to a normal sized street. At least, until the whole thing was blocked a short distance away by a massive car pileup that was dominated by a large bus that was laying on its side. Near the far end of the bus was what looked like the maintenance entrance to a parking garage, and Liquid started walking toward it, when the sound of gunfire made him freeze.

"Get away!" A frightened voice yelled.

Liquid didn't want to risk another encounter with that monster, so he ducked behind the nearest line of abandoned cars, and watched as another man in a military uniform ran into view. He was already wounded, and wouldn't last long with being chased by three zombie dogs, but he did have an assault rifle, which Liquid planned to take once the dogs wandered off.

"Eat this!" The Soldier yelled as he fired at them. "Die!"

The man was a horrible shot, and worse, the panicked fool tossed his weapon at the persuing dogs once he ran out of ammo. Somehow the flying rifle missed the dogs as it arched upward, and Liquid hung his head in frustration as it flew over the car-baricade. Now more dogs were joining in the hunt as the Soldier kept limping around, but Liquid was going to be ok as long as they didn't notice him.

"Hey you, help me!" The man yelled as he evaded the dogs by climbing up onto a truck. "You, the survivor hiding over there behind the cars! Help me!"

There were half a dozen dogs circling the car below, and they seemed to understand what he was talking about, since each of the creatures stopped and looked in the direction that he was pointing. Next thing he knew, Liquid was also jumping up on top of a car as the dogs turned their full attention to him, and to his surprise the Soldier started laughing as Liquid had to keep moving around to avoid getting bitten with each leap of the dogs.

"Thanks, pal!" He called. "I'll just wait till the dogs get you, and then I'll be on my way! I can't wait to tell everyone back home about the dumbass who died so that I could escape!"

The Soldier kept laughing as Liquid avoided the teeth of attack after attack by the dogs, and then he got an idea. The Soldier was unarmed now, so there was nothing he could do when Liquid drew his pistol and shot at him. The bullet hit him right in the leg, making the Soldier scream as he fell from the truck. As planned, the dogs went right for him, giving Liquid plenty of time to wave at the poor fool as he walked toward the maintenance door.

"He was right about one thing." Liquid said as he opened the door. "People _should_ know about the dumbass who died so that _I_ could escape."

Shutting and locking the door behind him so that no dogs could follow, Liquid saw that he was right about this being a kind of small parking garage. There was only room for about five or six cars, which made him question the point of having the building at all, but then his thoughts were distracted by the sight of something sparkling in the distance. No, not sparkling... but sparking. As he got closer, Liquid saw that there was a power cord charging the battery of a large van. Thinking that such a thing could be useful later, he reached for the cord, only to pull his hand back in pain as it shocked him.

"God damn it to fucking shit!" He screamed while holding his hurt hand.

Frustrated and angry about what just happened, Liquid lifted his leg to kick the front bumper, but slipped on some spilled oil, resulting on him falling on his ass. So he aimed his pistol and shot at the van, but the bullet bounced off the axle underneath, causing it to ricochet to where it made a small rip across Liquid's jacket as it grazed his arm.

"Alright, fine." He said as he put the pistol away. "I know when I'm beat."

He slowly pulled himself to his feet while continuously looking at the van as if it were going to attack him, and then he backed away slowly until he went through the open door of a small office. Quickly shutting and locking this door as well, Liquid was finally able to relax for a second as he reloaded his pistol.

"Can't believe this." He grumbled to himself. "I just got my ass kicked by a parked van."

More of the same awaited him as he left the office and found himself walking along another alley, but then the scenary changed as he wandered into a construction site. There was also a sound of something moving behind him, a sound which stopped a fraction of a second after he stopped moving. So he took another two quick steps, and again the sound stopped right after him. Now convinced that something was behind him, he did two quick steps, three slow steps, four more quick steps, and ended the moved by spinning around and firing the shotgun right into the face of a creature the likes of which he had never seen before.

It had six limbs like an insect, and made a high-pitched sound like a dentist's drill as it fell onto its back. It was a little bigger than him, with a brown and green body that was leaking a kind of acidic sludge from where it had been shot, and after another dentist-drill sound, the creature fell silent. Other than being completely disgusted with the dead husk laying on the ground in front of him, Liquid's prime concern was that there might have been other such creatures around, so he ran for it. The construction site was not very big at all, so soon he was on another large street where the first thing he saw was a movie theater that was right next to a small canal.

"Hmm." Liquid said as he looked at the water. "I wonder if this will float me right out of the city."

He was about to dive into the water, but was stopped as he heard more gunshots coming from up the road. Now he had to decide whether to investigate the gunshots which could lead to more monsters, or to jump into the canal which could just as easily have been filled with even more monsters. At least the ones on land he could see coming, so he turned away from the water just as someone killed a zombie a short distance away. The shooter then ran into a large restaurant where the name _Grill 13 _was painted across the banner.

"Grill 13, huh?" Liquid said to himself as he walked toward it. "Now where have I heard that name before?"

He walked up the street to the entrance, and this was his only choice since the road was blocked beyond the resturant, so he took a moment to reload his shotgun before cautiously entering the building.


	8. Ch 8 Grill 13

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 8: Grill 13**

There were signs of a recent battle taking place here; the walls peppered with bullet holes and most of the tables in the restaurant having been knocked over. The whole place looked like it had been ready for a party before the zombie outbreak started, and there were streamers along the walls, along with trays of nachos on the few undamaged tables, which Liquid helped himself to since it had been awhile since he ate anything.

"Grill 13." He said to himself as he looked around. "Grill 13... where have I heard that name before?"

Moving past the restaurant and into the kitchen, the first thing Liquid noticed was the smell of gas coming from a leaking pipe. The fumes were really strong, so he stepped back into the restaurant just in time to aim his shotgun at the restroom door that was opening.

"Woah, woah, chill out Ese." A hispanic man said as he put up his hands. "I ain't no zombie."

He was wearing the same olive-drab uniform as the other Soldiers that he had encountered, and he wasn't dead or obviously planning to screw him over, so Liquid lowered the shotgun, allowing the other man to relax as well. This person was also carrying an assault rifle with plenty of ammo, so maybe he would be able to help.

"Thanks for not air-holing me, man." The Soldier continued. "I'm Carlos Olivera, Corporal of Umbrella's Biohazzard Countermeasure Force. Who are you?"

"I'm Liquid." He replied. "And apparently I'm a member of the RPD Special Tactics and Rescue Service. I ran into a few of your friends a ways uptown, and they weren't doing to good. One shot himself, and the other I used as a dist... er, I mean, he was killed by dogs... it was awful."

He expected Carlos to be angry or at least saddened by the death of his teammates, but instead he put his hands on his hips and leaned back to laugh heartily. Then he ran over to one of the undamaged tables and jumped on top of it.

"They died because they were too stressed, Ese." He announced. "Now I'm gonna show you how to unwind and be a cool survivor like me."

Carlos clapped his hands twice, and Liquid jumped a little as loud latin music began to blast from the speakers. Not only that, but bright flashing lights began to go off from units mounted on the walls while Carlos was dancing on the table, and two important things entered Liquid's mind. The first was that he now remembered hearing this idiot on the radio in the RPD talking about Grill 13, and the second was that noise and light like this was going to draw the attention of every monster within earshot.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Liquid yelled as he clapped twice to stop everything. "You're gonna bring every zombie within 3 blocks right to us!"

"Relax, loco" Carlos replied. "The zombies already came through here so they think we've moved on. Besides, between the two of us we have enough firepower to take them down, so what's the worst that could happen?"

Liquid was considering just shooting him right there, but was stopped as he heard a distant roar that drained some of the color out of his face. This fear was confirmed as the building started to shake a little, intensifying with the sound of heavy approaching footsteps, and Carlos was starting to say something, when Liquid ran over and grabbed him. He put his hand over Carlos's mouth as he dragged him across the restaurant and into the bathroom, and he kept the door open just enough to see what came in as the front door opened.

"STARS." The monster from before growled as it looked around.

The good news was that it didn't seem to have its rocket launcher this, but the bad news was that this thing would find them before too long. A plan... a plan... Liquid needed a plan... but didn't have one as the monster walked into the kitchen, and it was probably too much to hope for that the gas fumes would...

"The gas fumes." He whispered.

All of the undamaged tables had a small oil lamp on top of them, which were too far away from the leak to do any damage, which was probably why the Grill 13 was still standing, but maybe it was time for some renovations. Without thinking about it any more, Liquid ran out of the bathroom and grabbed the nearest lamp, tossing it into the kitchen just as the monster spotted him. The small object flew right past the monster, headed right for the leak, and only then did Liquid realize the full impact of what he had just done.

"RUN!" He screamed as he turned toward the door.

Carlos didn't stop to ask any questions as he joined Liquid in the mad dash toward freedom, and they were just getting through the door when the massive explosion lifted them off their feet. Everything around them was illuminated as if it were high noon for a second, but then it went dark again as the two of them were sent rolling and bouncing across the street. As for Grill 13, a large part of the building had simply collapsed, and the rest had been damaged to well beyond repair.

"Are you fucking batshit, loco?!" Carlos demanded as they lay in the street. "You could've fried both of us!"

"Oh, blow it out your ass." Liquid replied as he slowly sat up. "You're alive, so count your damn blessings and shut the hell up."

It took a few minutes for the dizziness and pain to wear off enough for them to get on their feet, but as of yet there was no sign of the monster, so Liquid allowed himself to relax. Just then his relaxation turned into a gasp of fright as a large piece of the rubble began to move as a fimiliar roar filled the air.

"Holy fucking shit." Liquid said in disbelief. "Ok, this thing has the constitution of a God damn tank, but if we work together I think we can hold it off long enough for us to escape. So it's you and me, Carlos... Carlos?"

He turned around just in time to see Carlos running down the far end of the street, where he vanished from sight by jumping over a fence. Liquid was about to follow, but at that moment the piece of rubble was knocked away, and the apparently unharmed monster slowly got up.

"STARS!" It roared as Liquid took off running down the street.


	9. Ch 9 Relentless Pursuit

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 9: Relentless Persuit**

"STARS!" The monster roared again.

Liquid ran as fast as he could to get away, but the monster's loud stomping feet could be heard slowly gaining on him. So he turned and climbed over a wooden fence that he thought was the same one Carlos went over, and quickly turned down another small alley as the monster busted through the fence. Liquid was in reasonably good shape, but he would never be able to outrun this thing, so he turned toward the only venure of escape he could see: A building with the words _Raccoon city Press _in large letters across the top.

He ran inside and slammed the door on the monster's face, but it crashed right through and was unable to stop itself from running right into a janitor's closet where it roared along with the sound of falling paint cans and shattering glass while Liquid ran toward the nearby stairs. The good news was that the creature's crash had bought him a few extra seconds, but the bad news was that the second and third floors of the building was on fire. It wasn't completely engulfed yet, but it was still to the point where he had to dodge some falling debris on the way up.

"STARS!" The monster growled from the bottom of the stairs.

"Learn a new word already." Liquid grumbled as he continued up.

The door to the second floor was unaccessable due to fire, so he continued up to the top floor and ran through an open entryway into a short hallway with the monster right on his heels. He tried the first door he came to, but the metal knob was hot enough to the touch to make him pull back; a move which saved him from getting his a the monster swung its fist. The door was cracked by the blow, and Liquid ducked out of the way as he ran across the hall into an open area with a long table and copy machine.

"Any way we can just talk about this?" Liquid asked in a frightened voice as he ran around to the other side of the table.

The monster shook its head as it reached the table, and it started to walk around it, but Liquid moved so that he stayed on the opposite side. The monster then tried the other way, but Liquid moved again, and this annoyed the monster so much that it roared as it broke the table in half with a karate chop. There was nowhere to run as the monster came toward him, so Liquid let out an unmanly scream of terror, but then the damaged door on the other side of the hall exploded outward from the fire pressure. It struck the monster in the back, causing it to stumble forward into him, and it and Liquid both screamed again as they broke right through the closed window.

They tumbled through the air as they fell, and thankfully the monster hit first, breaking Liquid's fall as he bounced off of its body and into a pile of garbage bags. This allowed him to immediatly roll to his feet and start running down the only path available, and he got a good distance ahead before the monster was able to get up.

"Keep running, keep running, keep running." He chanted to himself to resist the growing fatigue in his legs.

Passing a few more damaged and unaccessable buildings, Liquid darted around dumpsters and rolled over the hoods of abandoned cars, trying to put as much distance between himself and the monster as possible, but it was not long before the chase resumed. Soon Liquid was so tired that he couldn't run any more, and the monster was closing in, even as he saw another possible hiding place. There was a power substation up ahead, but it was so hard to move that it looked like he wouldn't be able to get away.

"STARS!" The creature roared as it got closer and closer.

Liquid tried one more time to run, but ended up tripping over a fire hydrant, and this gave him a desperate idea that he was pretty sure wouldn't work. Just as the monster was closing in, he took out the shotgun and fired at the hydrant. This broke off the metal cap and sent out a jetstream of water that hit the monster in the chest, making it growl in surprise as it was knocked backwards. The continuous stream of water pinned it to a car, giving Liquid the time he needed to get on his hands and knees, and literally crawl his way through the open metal gate of the substation.

There were a series of locking bars that he put in place, and the door itself was really sturdy, so it held when the monster freed itself and ran over to break it down. The terrifying creature roared as it grabbed the gate and shook it, but although Liquid was safe for the moment, he was also trapped. This place was made up of a single room with a control panel that regulated the power, and the gate would not hold forever, so...

Liquid just sat there staring as the monster pulled at the gate, and a few things clicked into his mind. 1) The monster was soaking wet from the fire hydrant. 2) It was holding onto a metal gate which was attached to the metal fence around the substation. 3) He had a way to control the power.

Summoning the last of his energy, Liquid got up and leaned on the control panel as he attempted to learn how it worked. However, the numbers and gages meant nothing to him, so he just grabbed the largest lever and pushed it all the way up. Suddenly sparks started shooting out of the control panel as the generators started much harder than they were used to, and that caused all of the excess electricity to be vented across the fence.

The monster roared as waves of crackling blue energy were sent flowing up and down its body, and when the excess power was used up, the final burst of blue light sent the monster flying backwards to where it made a huge dent in the side of the delivery truck that it crashed into. The generators must have been overheating because they all shut down a few seconds later, stopping the flow of electricity as Liquid put the shotgun back over his shoulder.

"Shocking." He said as he started to catch his breath. "Sorry... I couldn't resist."

The monster was not moving, so Liquid exited the substation, and tried to walk past it as quietly as he could as his breathing finally returned to normal. The impact to the delivery van had opened up a new pathway, so he very carefully stepped over the smoldering creature's legs, and exhaled heavily as his walking returned to a normal pace. For a few minutes he walked, and still the monster did not return, so he relaxed a bit more as he came to another open area.

The first thing he noticed was the word _STAGLA_ in brightly illuminated letters above a small gas station. The second thing was that gas was only $1.25 per gallon. This made him realize that there were a _few _things that he missed about the 90's, but he forgot all about this nostalga as he went through the door and found the real treasure: Bags of chips, candy bars, soda bottles, all kinds of things to make life easier when a person was tired, and it was a safe bet that he helped himself to a lot of it.

"Liquid?" A familiar voice said from the back room. "Liquid, is that you?"

The back room was actually a mechanic's garage, and of course there was oil and gas spilled all over the floor from a car that was probably in the middle of being worked on before this whole zombie thing started. The only other thing in the room was Carlos, who did not seem to be any worse for wear. Liquid thought about shooting him right there for leaving him with the monster, but he was too tired for that, and it was nice to see another human.

"Damn, loco." Carlos continued. "I thought you were dead for sure, especially after I heard those loud womanly screams... how did you get away?"

"By the skin of my God damn teeth, that's how." Liquid replied as he sat down. "I mean... I've seen some pretty tough monsters before... but that thing is something else. Good news though; I think I killed it, so everything is going to be ok."

He smiled a bit as he leaned back, but then his smile faded as the room began to shake a little, followed by a familiar growl as the heavy footsteps got closer.

"Are... you... fucking... shitting... me?" Liquid asked as he got up. "Close that door... now!"

Carlos went over to the door to the other room and closed it just as the no longer smoldering monster was entering the parking lot.

"Alright, this ends_ now_." Liquid growled angrily. "Help me open those garage shutters just enough to get out, and then I want you to go around and bar the front door once that thing is inside. Oh, and give me your lighter."

Liquid started laughing to himself as he was handed the zippo lighter and tested to see if it worked, so Carlos didn't ask any more questions as he helped open the shutter. Carlos then crawled under, and Liquid stayed where he was as he heard the monster open the front door. Once it opened the door to where he was, Liquid looked past it to see that Carlos had reached the front door and was blocking it by putting the metal bar from a fallen stop sign behind the handles.

"STARS." The monster growled as he started forward.

"Not today, friend." Liquid said as he tossed the still lit lighter toward the pool of oil and gas.

He then crawled under the shutters while letting them slam to the ground behind him, and took off running as soon as he was on his feet.

"RUN!" Liquid screamed as he sprinted toward the parking lot. "RUN, YOU STUPID SON OF A BITCH, RUN!"

Carlos wasted no time in following him, and the explosion that erupted from the station was the largest to was a brilliant flash as the building erupted in flames, but it didn't stop there. Apparently gas had been leaking from outside as well, causing cars to fly up into the air from their individual explosions, followed by a single powerful blast that leveled the building as Liquid and Carlos were knocked off their feet.

"God damn, Ese, you really _are_ loco!" Carlos yelled as they lay on the street.

"Yeah, whatever." Liquid replied. "I vote we take a five minute break."

Not waiting for Carlos to cast his vote, Liquid rested his head and passed out as the gas station continued to burn.


	10. Ch 10 Chemical Storage

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 10: Chemical Storage**

To say that Liquid was a little disoriented would have been an understatement, being that one second he was laying on the street outside a burning gas station, and the next he was being rudely awakened by having a small bucket of water thrown in his face. He was now in an office of some kind, with a few desks and computers that had yet to be touched by the outbreak, but these calm surroundings were offset by the fact that he was tied to a chair.

"Ah, you're awake already." A man with white hair and a russian accent said.

"Where am I?" Liquid replied.

The russian smiled for a second and then slugged him in the mouth so hard that he and the chair fell over. Once he was down the russian began to kick and stomp him several times before suddenly stopping and putting the chair back upright.

"Holy shit!" Liquid exclaimed. "What did _I_ do?"

"I don't know, Ese." Carlos said from where he was leaning in the corner. "But I wouldn't do it again if I were you."

"The prisoner will be silent, except to answer questions." The russian ordered. "For I am Nikolai Zinoviev, and for these, the last few moments of your life... you belong to _me_, you capitalist dog."

Nikolai then picked up a small black bag from the floor and set it on the desk next to Liquid. From the bag he began to pull out the following items: A mousetrap, a pair of tweezers, an egg-beater, a jar of silly putty, and an ant-farm.

"What the hell are those for?" A wide-eyed Liquid asked.

"You have one chance to save your life, dog." Nikolai continued. "I will ask you a question, and your answer will deturmine whether I let you go... or show you the truly evil face of these common household items. Now... what is the password to open _that_ storage door?"

He pointed across the room to a heavy door that was electronically locked, and Liquid started to sweat as he noticed the computer monitor that was asking for a password. Honestly he had no idea what the password was, but being a generally shady person himself, he knew that most people were dumb enough to use something in the room for a password.

Looking around the room for something that would fit, the only things he saw were a snowglobe from Wyoming, a dirty coffee cup, and a poster that was an advertisement for something called _Safsprin_.

"Times up, capitalist dog." Nikolai laughed as he touched each of the items on the desk. "So what is your answer, hmm?"

"Safsprin!" Liquid yelled. "The password is Safsprin!"

Nikolai nodded to Carlos, who then walked over to the computer and entered the password. The computer changed to a loading screen while the password was checked, and Liquid somehow knew that it was the wrong one. He wished that he had gone with the snowglobe, but then there was a beeping sound as the electronic lock clicked open.

"Well, look at that." Nikolai said. "Today is your lucky day; not only do you get to live, but you also get to go in there and get the oil additive for us. Untie him, Carlos."

Carlos did as he said, and after about a minute of him trying to undo Nikolai's knots, Liquid was free to stand up. The ropes had been tight, so Liquid rubbed his wrists as Nikolai nodded again, causing Carlos, much to Liquid's surprise, to return his weapons and items.

"It will be very dangerous inside." Nikolai continued as Liquid put his stuff on. "Carlos will accompany you as far as just inside the door to make sure that you don't, um, how do you americans say it? Chicken out. But be warned... if you try anything funny, you will not live to regret it."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Liquid said as he holstered his pistol.

The instant his pistol was in the holster, Liquid pulled the trigger, making Nikolai cry out in agony as the bullet went right into his foot. Liquid then grabbed the pistol out of the russian's holster, and struck him in the side of the head hard enough to make him collapse to the floor.

"_Don't try anything, capitalist dog_." Liquid mocked as he examined the pistol. "Eat shit and die, you commie prison-bitch."

He then found the release buttons that allowed him to completely disassemble the pistol, and laughed to himself as he dropped the little pieces onto the unconsious russian.

"That felt nice." Liquid continued as he turned to Carlos. "Now what the hell did you two idiots need with an oil additive?"

"It's for the cablecar." Carlos explained. "We're gonna use it as a moving shield as we make our way to the clock tower for extraction, and the additive is the last thing we need to get it moving. But to get it... we have to go in... _there_."

Liquid could almost feel the ominous and dark energy that surrounded the door that they had just opened, but if this was the only way to escape the city, then there was no other way.

"We have no choice." Carlos said as he started forward.

"Wait a second." Liquid replied as he stopped him. "If Nikolai was right, then it might be very dangerous... so you go first."

Carlos nodded while readying his assault rifle while Liquid unslung his shotgun. Together they very carefully approached the sinister door where surely a thousand nightmares lay in wait, and expecting the worst they pulled open the door to reveal the horror of... absolutely nothing. All that waited for them was a short hallwaythat ended in a small room where some chemicals were stored.

"Oh, sure it's dangerous." Liquid said. "If you're not careful, you might die of boredom in there."

He smacked Carlos in the side of the head as they walked down the hall, and sure enough, sitting on a shelf in plain sight was a bottle of oil additive. Again they were careful as Carlos picked it up, but still nothing happened... that is until they heard glass shattering back in the office followed by a horrible scream from Nikolai. They started running back down the hall, but stopped in their tracks as the door flew open and a dozen zombies shambled their way into the hall.

"We're trapped with no way out!" Carlos yelled. "What do we do?!"

"You've got a gun, don't you?" Liquid replied. "Use it!"

They raised their weapons, and after a few seconds of heavy gunfire the zombies were finished. There were also a few stragglers in the main office that were quickly taken care of on their way back, but there was no sign of Nikolai. No blood, no bullet holes, no nothing. He was just gone.

"Well, I guess your friend won't be joining us." Liquid said. "Let's get out of here."

"That's too bad." Carlos replied as they headed toward the door. "But you know, underneath his mean and condescending exterior... the guy was a real asshole."

They left the building and walked down a stone pathway for a short distance next to what looked like city hall, but then they both gasped and nearly fell over as the ground shook violently for a second. It stopped as soon as it started, and they both shrugged before continuing to walk. Carlos must have been in a hurry because he started running, and Liquid was about to follow when the ground started to shake again.

"What the hell?" He asked as the shaking got worse.

As far as he knew, Raccoon City wasn't on a fault line or anything, but then again... he didn't actually know what state the city was in, so it could have been. Either way there was no more time to think about this as the ground beneath him suddenly collapsed, making him fall into the darkness that waited below the streets.


	11. Ch 11 The Beast Below

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 11: The Beast Below**

The good news was that Liquid only fell about 15 feet before crashing to a halt on top of the rubble from the surface, but the bad news was that he appeared to be trapped in an old part of the sewer system. There was plenty of light coming from the street lights above, and this allowed him to see that he was at the beginning of a narrow path which went ahead for a short distance before branching off into three directions.

"Carlos!" He called while looking up. "Carlos, I'm trapped!"

There was no answer, so Liquid had to assume two things: First, what that he had been left behind, most likely due to ignorance. Second, that he would have to find a way out of this place on his own. But, hey, maybe he would get lucky and find a service ladder or something. He was just about to begin the search, when a low rumbling from the wall behind him caused him yo turn around.

"What's that sound?" He asked.

Suddenly a large section of the wall exploded inward, and all Liquid saw was teeth as he reflexively jumped back from the roaring beast. From what he could see of the creature, from both the part sticking out of the wall and his own viewpoint of falling on his ass, it was a gigantic worm or caterpillar, or something. It had four huge pinchers that were probably for grabbing food for its rows and rows of sharp nasty teeth inside the mouth, and Liquid expected it to grab him, but instead it pulled back into the hole, vanishing from sight.

"Gotta get out of here." Liquid said to himself as he scrambled to his feet. "Yep, gotta get out of here."

He unslung his shotgun as he started down the long narrow path, and thankfully the creature hadn't appeared again as he reached the 3-way junction. Deciding to go right first, Liquid was dissapointed to find himself faced with a dead end, but then the wall exploded inward as the creature came at him. This time he was not quick enough to get away in time, and Liquid cried out in horror as the giant pinchers grabbed hold of not his flesh, but his shotgun.

"No!" He screamed as it pulled the weapon from his hands. "No, no, no, no, no!"

The pinchers dragged it in and a second later the shotgun was gone, leaving him with only a pistol to defend himself with. The small weapon was all he had, so he drew it and fired three bullets into the creature's mouth, making it growl as it vanished back into the hole, but not doing nearly enough damage to actually hurt it. Backing away into the junction, Liquid expected it to come at him again, but again it left him alone.

Then he saw it: At the end of the left path was, as he hoped, a service ladder which led to a manhole opening. There was some kind of switchboard at the much shorter center path , but he didn't pay any attention to it as he very quietly made his way toward the ladder. This time the creature burst from the wall well before he got there, and there it stayed just inches from the ladder, as if daring him to try for it.

"Cute." Liquid grumbled as he and the creature stared each other down. "Real fucking cute."

There was no way he would be fast enough to get to the ladder before it grabbed him, and the pistol was not strong enough for this fight, so needless to say, things were looking bad. If only his shotgun hadn't been taken away he could have fought it off, but it was gond for good, leaving the dozens of shells he had collected as little more than...

Suddenly his thoughts shifted as he opened the side pack and took out a shell. It was useless by itself, but maybe it could be used in a different way. He had seen a thousand movies over the years featuring desperate heroes facing horrible monsters with little or no resources, and now it was time to draw on that knowledge. But would such a plan work in real life? Was the monster dumb enough?

There was only one way to find out, so he moved a few steps closer and tossed the shell at the monster. The instant it came within reaching distance, its pinchers opened and the large mouth swallowed the shell whole. Now that he knew that at least part of his plan would work, Liquid quickly dug out every single shotgun shell in his sidepack, and the monster greedily gobbled up each one.

"Ok then." Liquid said to himself as he aimed the pistol. "Prepare for indigestion."

He fired another three shots, each hitting the mouth dead-on, but much to his dissapointment, nothing happened. The creature growled at him as if annoyed, and then vanished into the hole. Liquid was about to make a mad dash for the ladder, when the creature reappeared out of the wall on the center path, which he happened to be right in front of. All he saw was teeth as he fell backwards while screaming like a little girl, but instead of hitting him, the creature's pinchers sunk into the switchboard that he had ignored earlier.

Waves of electricity began to flow over the creature's worm-like body, but it didn't seem to be hurting it that much, at least until the first explosion was heard. This was followed by dozens of others, each one making it roar as the electricity continued to ignite the firing caps of the shells in its belly. Blood and bile began to spray from its mouth as explosion after explosion made it desperate to free itself, and with a final roar, the creature pulled free, this time vanishing back into the hole and continuing to tunnel away based on the sound it was making.

"Yeah, that's right, run!" Liquid called after it. "You owe me a shotgun, asshole!"

This time the creature was definitely gone, so he holstered his pistol and ran for the ladder, climbing to the surface before it could change its mind. It really sucked that he had lost the shotgun, but all things considered, he was happy just to be alive. The manhole at the top of the ladder was easy enough to open, and once he climbed up, Liquid found himself at an old tramway station. Sure enough there was a single cable car parked there, and that must have been where Carlos had gone.

"Decisions, decisions." He said to himself as he walked toward it. "Do I really need a second person in the party, or should I just kill the dumbass and take his assault rifle?"

The answers to these questions, as well as many more, were sure to be answered as Liquid made his way up to the cable car and opened the door.


	12. Ch 12 A Ride In The Cable Car

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 12: A Ride In The Cable Car**

"It's about time you showed up, loco." Carlos said as Liquid walked into the cable car. "What, did you stop to take a piss or something?"

"Yeah, that's it." Liquid replied as he shut and locked the door. "It's not like I was swallowed by the earth, and then barely escaped with my life while a giant carniverous worm ate my shotgun or anything."

Carlos looked at him for a second and then shrugged as he turned toward an open panel on the rearmost part of the floor. He knelt down and opened it, revealing a blinking red light next to a fill-point marked mixed oil. There was a large jug of what looked like oil next to the panel, and soon Carlos had mixed it with the oil additive that they had recovered from the warehouse.

"This should do it." Carlos said as he poured it into the opening."

He emptied the entire contents of the jug, and once he replaced the cap, the indicator light changed to blue. This meant that everything on the cable car was now functioning, and that now they would be able to get to the clock tower. The controls were up front, so the two of them were headed that way when Liquid screamed and jumped back as a hand grabbed his leg.

There, laying on one of the benches for passengers along the wall, was yet another man in an olive-drab uniform, but this man did not look well. There was blood all over the front of his shirt, and he was drooling heavily.

"Shoes!" He yelled in a russian accent. "Shoes... socks! Half... half off till thursday!"

"Who the fuck is this?" Liquid asked as he looked down at the man.

"Oh, that's just Mikhail." Carlos explained. "He lost his mind back in Grenada or something, so just ignore him."

"Women's swimwear!" Mikhail continued. "Special's on... special's on bathrobes!"

Liquid shrugged as he and Carlos moved through a door into the front car where the controls were located, and with a simple push of a lever the large vehicle began to move. It slowly picked up speed as it ran along the track, and it looked like they were going to get away, but then there was a screeching sound as he and Carlos lurched forward.

"We're slowing down?" Carlos asked. "Aw, what the hell, Ese?"

"Just keep driving." Liquid said as he turned toward the door. "Damn brakes probably just locked up or something."

He went back through the door into the rear car, and it turns out that his prediction was accurate. The brakes had locked alright... because Mikhail had pulled them. He was now standing up near the back wall, and was still holding onto the lever when Liquid approached.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked. "Let go of that so we can...

His words stopped as Mikhail pointed his pistol at him, and Liquid quickly put up his hands while backing away. The russian had a look of pure psychotic rage in his eyes as he pulled the hammer back with his thumb, and Liquid jumped at the loud sound that followed. However, it was not the sound of a pistol being fired, but the crashing of broken glass as the black-coated and heavily deformed monster busted through the wall.

It's rammed into Mikhail, smashing the russian's head against the window so hard that the glass cracked as he passed out on the floor, and this _did_ release the brake. However, now Liquid had a whole new set of problems.

"STARS!" The monster roared.

Liquid's first instinct was to run away, so he turned back to the door just as Carlos could be heard locking it from the other side.

"Whew, that was a close one." Carlos could be heard saying through the door. "I should be safe in here, though."

"Carlos, I'm still in here!" Liquid screamed as he banged on the door. "Open the door or I'll kick your fucking head in! Carllllllloooooossssssss!"

The monster's heavy footsteps could be heard, and felt, approaching, and Liquid turned around just in time to avoid getting grabbed, and his first instinct was to punch the monster as hard as he could in the stomach as he came back up. The huge creature barely even twitched from the blow, and it just stood there, almost as if it were confused as Liquid continued to punch it.

Faster and with all of his muscle behind it, Liquid pummeled the monster's torso with both fists, and the creature just kind of chuckled as it turned around so that Liquid was now hitting its lower back. It then stretched its powerful arms upward while moving so that different spots were being hit, and Liquid slowly stopped for two reasons. The first was that the monster was treating his most powerful punches like a back massage, and the second was that he was running out of energy.

"STARS." It growled as it turned back around.

The monster moved its back and hips around for a second before nodding at him in approval, and then it backhanded Liquid right through the locked door. The lock was shattered as the door was opened by the flying Liquid, and upon hitting the floor, he slid backwards until his came to a hard stop against the front wall.

"You ok, loco?" Carlos asked.

"Oh God." He gasped in agony. "You will never know the pain."

Liquid opened his eyes just as the monster was about to come through the door, but it was stopped as Mikhail jumped onto its back. The monster roared as it tried to throw him off, but the russian wasn't going anywhere.

"Slippers and boxers!" He yelled as he took something off his belt. "Slippers and boxers 2 for 1!"

It soon became clear that the object that was now in Mikhail's hand was a grenade, and Liquid pulled himself to his feet at the same time that the russian pulled the pin. He stumbled over to the door and closed it just as the resulting explosion rocked the car, with most of the force blowing the door off its hinges where it landed on top of Liquid as he hit the floor once again.

"Ok, loco, I got something to tell you." Carlos said as Liquid writhed in pain. "So do you want the good news, the great news, or the really fucking shitty news first?"

"The great news." Liquid groaned. "God, please let_ something _good happen today."

His head was throbbing the whole top half of his body felt like it had been beaten with an oar for two hours, and the door on top of him wasn't helping. So with the last of his strength, Liquid pushed the door away so that he could roll onto his back. Through the open doorway he could see that the whole rear car had been wrecked, and also... the monster was gone.

"Ok, the great news is that the monster's gone." Carlos continued. "And the good news is that the brakes are no longer locked. However... the really fucking shitty news is that we don't have _any_ brakes now, and that the clock tower wall is just ahead."

Liquid forced himself to sit up so that he could look out the front window to see a large stone wall approaching fast, and for a moment he wondered why anyone would build a cable line that ended by running into a historical monument. Unfortunately for him, however, these questions were interupted as the cable car slammed into the wall at full speed, kicking the whole vehicle upward and onto its side. This brought the car to a stop, but it also sent Liquid crashing right through the front window where he rolled and bounced a little after hitting the ground.

"Car... Carlos?" He asked weakly.

His ears were ringing, and his vision was going dark, but Liquid managed one last attempt to get up before losing consiousness.


	13. Ch 13 Carlos To The Rescue

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 13: Carlos To The Rescue**

The first thing that Liquid felt was the cold sting of falling rain, which caused him to open one eye as he slowly regained consiousness. Once his vision came into focus he saw what remained of the cable car, kicked up onto its side and stuck halfway through the wall, and with a very painful turn of his head he saw that he was laying on the ground in the middle of a large walled courtyard. A short distance away was the much talked about clock tower, and it's face was still lit up like a second moon.

"Carlos?" He asked weakly.

His whole body felt like it was impaled with a hundred nails, and Liquid's first attempt to get up ended with him falling on his face after not even getting up to his knees. The pain in his head was impossible to ignore as it pounded like a damn base drum, and when he finally got to his hands and knees, a sudden coughing fit resulted in a small splash of blood coming from his mouth. A little more was sprayed out each time he tried to move again, but through pure force of will, Liquid was able to use a birdbath as support to pull himself to his feet.

"Carlos?" He called again as a little more blood came out.

The red fluid was now dripping from his mouth like drool, staining the front of his shirt as he stumbled toward the first door her saw. There were plenty of decorative statues and monuments for him to bleed on as he used them to keep from falling over, but when he finally reached the small side door it opened easily, resulting in him falling on his face halfway inside the first room.

The floor was a beautifully shined marble, or at least it was until he dragged himself across it, which caused all kinds of scuff marks and stains, but the only thing that Liquid was concerned about was the fact that it was empty. No zombies or monsters were waiting for him, nor could he even see any through the large windows on the other side of the room. There was a piano against the wall for some reason, but other than that the only noticable features of the room were that there was a door on each side.

He was closer to the one on the left, so he groaned and coughed a little more as he again struggled to his hands and knees. Now his vision was starting to fade in and out as he used the piano for support this time, however it was cheaply made, resulting in a loud musical crash that accompanied Liquid's latest fall as the wooden legs snapped under his weight.

"Shhhhh!" He hissed dileriously as he rolled onto his back. "You want them to know where you are?!"

At least now he was closer to the door, so he crawled over and reached upward for the knob, and failing three times before finally getting it open. Inside was a small kind of chapel complete with a stain-glass window, some small pews for any worshipers who happened to come by, and an alter at the front. Liquid made it as far as the first pew, where he coughed up more blood as he pulled himself up to sit on it, but just ended up laying down again.

"Oh, hey, loco." Carlos's voice said. "I was wondering where you ended up."

Liquid opened one eye and saw that not only was Carlos walking toward him after closing the door, but he also appeared to be completely unharmed. No blood, no bruises, no fatigue, no nothing as if he had not even been in the crash at all.

"Sorry I'm late getting here." He continued. "I go thrown out the side window when the cable car crashed, and I landed on a bunch of mattresses that fell out of an overturned truck. I was gonna come check on you, but they were so comfortable that I just had to take a nap, you know what I mean? Oh... hey, you don't look too good, Ese."

"I'm dying, you remedial shit-spoon." Liquid hissed as he coughed up more blood. "I can barely move, Carlos... I need hemostatic medicine and some bandages... or I'll...

Liquid trailed off as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he lost consiousness. It was now up to Carlos to save the day, and he would prove himself a hero by getting Liquid the medicine, and, um... he had no idea where to find it. He had never been to this part of the city before, but Liquid was counting on him, so he left the room and headed toward the other door.

Through it was what appeared to be the main hall of the clock tower, with several historical display tables and a staircase that went up to the next floor. there probably wouldn't be any medicine up there, so he moved across the hall and through another door that led to a long hallway. The rain was starting to come down harder now, as seen through the windows and heard hitting the roof, but then he forgot all about the rain as he saw what was laying in the corner.

It was a man. Another member of the UBSC like he and Nikolai, but this person was very dead, with his body covered in what looked like spiderwebs and his mouth twisted into an expression of pure screaming agony like that dead chick they found in the closet in _The Ring_.

"Aye, yai, yai." He remarked while looking down at the body. "What the hell happened to...

His words were cut off as something fell on top of him from the ceiling, and all he saw was a bunch of outstretched legs and scary teeth as it took him down. It looked like this was the end for Carlos, but then his assault rifle began to fire once it hit the ground, and after 8 or 9 shots to its main body, the giant spider fell over dead.

As for Carlos, his face was now about as pale as was possible for his skin tone, and he was just glad that Liquid wasn't there to hear his loud womanly shriek, or to see the urine stain that had recently formed on the front of his pants. He was shaking so badly that he was actually unable to move until after the creature's legs stopped twitching.

"Santa mierda!" He gasped as he sat up.

Not wanting to wait and see if there were any more of those things around, Carlos jumped to his feet as soon as he was able, and ran as fast as he could to the other end of the hallway, where the next door brought him into some kind of store room. There were chairs and spare statues stacked along the walls, as well as a very large spare bell for the clock tower, that was blocking the back door.

"I know, maybe it's a puzzle." He said to himself. "These fucking gringos love to make puzzles for some reason, so maybe I gotta solve it to open the door."

There was nothing remarkable about the chairs or tools on the shelves in the back, which left the three identical statues. Each one had a small sphere of different material laying in a tray, and there was a clock at the center of them. There was also something written on a wall plaque.

_The door will open when the three goddesses wittness midnight._

_That will teach you to take my sandwich from the break room, Fergus._

_Good luck getting the clock to ring on time, loser. Ha, ha, ha._

With his mind completely focused, Carlos picked up the first sphere and set it on a little scale in front of the first statue. The clock in the center then moved, but in the wrong direction. This went on for several minutes as he tried putting different ones on different statues, but then he decided to just toss them away as he aimed his rifle and began to shott the statues and clock while screaming in frustration. During this fit he must have hit a latch or something, because the clock itself suddenly fell open, and a small gold and solver gear fell to the floor.

"What the hell is this?" He asked as he picked it up. "I wanted the fucking door to open, you God damn puta!"

Not wanting to waste the effort of getting the gear, he put it into his sidepack, and then with eyes full of rage, he rammed his shoulder into the spare bell, only to bounce back and fall on his ass. For another few minutes he tried with all his might to move the metal object, and only when his strength was exausted did he look up and discover that there was a chain attached to the top.

His eyes slowly followed the chain as it went up to a pully and then came back down to where it was anchored to the wall, and again he was happy that no one had been there to see that. It took a whole five seconds to use the pully system to move the bell far enough out of the way for him to open the back door, and once he was outside he had to cover his face to protect himself from the hard stinging rain.

"This is loco." He grumbled as he walked forward. "I can't see shit, I don't know where I am, and I don't know where I'm gonna find...

His words stopped as he saw a large illuminated red cross in the distance, and as he walked toward it he sighed with relief as it was revealed to be above the front door of the Raccoon City Hospital. He did not know what was waiting for him inside, nor did he know if he would be able to find what he was looking for, but Liquid was counting on him, so he pulled open the thick glass double doors and went inside.


	14. Ch 14 Raccoon City Hospital

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 14: Raccoon City Hospital**

"Hola?" Carlos asked quietly as he entered the building. "Is anyone home? Anyone alive... or dead? If you're dead... don't answer, okay?"

He took two more steps inside, but then jumped back in horror as he saw that the waiting room was a bloodbath. There were bodies laying on the floor, slumped over chairs, and the legs of one could even be seen sticking out from under a fallen vending machine. The good news was that none of them were getting up, since most were too cut up or just plain destroyed to do so even if they _were_ zombies... but how did they get like that?

"Who's there?" He asked as a sound came from behind the corner. "Show yourself, hombre."

The reply came in the form of a moan as a zombie slowly shambled its way into view. Carlos was aiming his assault rifle at it, when there was a flash of movement as the zombie's head was neatly severed by another creature as it leapt past. This thing looked like a skinned green and red version of a gorilla mixed with a frog, and it's claws had to be almost eight inches long.

The creature seemed to grin at him as it grabed the zombie's headless body, and then Carlos almost vomited as it moved the torso up to its rear, and actually deficated down the zombie's neck. Once finished, the creature dropped the body before pointing at Carlos and then to the body. In response, Carlos quickly shook his head, and the creature nodded with that same grin before shrieking as it ran toward him.

His rifle was already aimed, so he opened fire on the creature, but this just caused sparks to fly as the bullets bounced off its armored covering. It did seem to throw off the creature's aim as it leapt into the air, since it crashed into a support pillar instead of cleaving off his head, and Carlos used this moment of distraction to run through the first door he saw.

The creature seemed to lose interest once its target was out of sight, and its heavy footsteps could be heard as it walked away. As for Carlos, he was now in what was probably the doctor's lounge. There were tables and chairs, as well as a refrigerator that had been apparently shashed into pieces, but the only significant find was a small tape recorder on the nearest table. So Carlos picked it up and pushed the _play_ button.

_"Blood pressure is 80/80, almost as though he's dead." _A doctor's voice said. _"The brain has already started to deteriorate like he's dead or something... no heartbeat... no resperation... my God, I've never seen a man this dead before."_

The recording ended, and there wasn't anything left in this room of any use, but there _was_ an elevator in the corner, so he pushed the button, and soon the doors opened. They closed again once he was inside, and Carlos became confused when he saw that the only buttons on the panel were: 1F, 4F, and B3. He could only assume that he was already on 1F, so he pushed the button marked 4F, and the elevator started moving a second later.

He tried to prepare himself for anything as they elevator slowly made its way upward, since literally anything could have been waiting for him. Zombies, that thing that wanted to shit down his neck, or even that thing that was chasing Liquid, but when he aimed his rifle as the doors opened he was greeted by... nothing.

The fourth floor of the hospital was deathly quiet as he left the elevator and moved down the hallway. The way he was going seemed to be the only option, since the only other hall was blocked by a set of double doors that were chained shut, and written in black paint scrawled across was:

_DON'T DEAD_

_OPEN INSIDE_

"Don't dead open inside?" He asked himself. "I don't know, do they? That's a good question."

There was only a single door at the end of the path he was on, and the plaque on the wall read: _Data Room_. As he reached the door he began to hear voices in the room beyond, so he opened it and walked inside just in time to hear gunshots followed by a scream. Running across the room and around the records shelves, Carlos gasped in surprise as he came face to face with...

"Nikolai?" He asked. "Holy shit, amigo, I can't believe you're alive."

"How much did you see?" The russian demanded.

Carlos was about to ask him what he meant by that, but then he looked down at the man that had just been shot, and the confusion returned to his mind. The man was wearing the same olive-drab shirt as the UBCS, buthe was also wearing a tutu with stilletto heels and a blonde wig.

"What the hell is going on here?" Carlos asked. "Nikolai, what is all this?"

"I'm _not_ gay, damn it!" The russian suddenly screamed. "This man was _not_ my lover, and I _certainly_ didn't kill him because he's a cheating bitch whose been seeing that Hunk guy on the side... little whore. I'm, um... one of the supervisors for, um, Operation... Watchdog? Yeah, that's it, and now I have to kill you because you know too much!"

He then pointed his pistol at Carlos, but instead of the trigger being pulled, the sound of a metallic pin being pulled reached their ears. They both looked down at the same time do see the man who had been shot taking a grenade off his belt, and he coughed up a little blood from laughing as the spoon flew off the top of the explosive.

"I'll show _you _a cheater." He spat. "I know all about you and Chief Iorns."

"Brian and I are just friends." Nikolai replied. "I would never...

His rebuttle was stopped as the grenade went off, and Nikolai screamed as the force of the blast sent him flying out the window. Carlos was blown backwards as the records shelves were destroyed, and he crashed into an emergency kit which broke open after he hit the floor. Most of the contents were destroyed, but the bandages that had fallen into his lap were still good, so he tucked them into his sidepack and got to his feet.

"Well, there's the bandages." He said to himself as he moved toward the door. "Now all I need is some hemostatic and Liquid should be good to go... as long as he didn't die already... in which case I totally get his weapons."

There wasn't anything else to see on 4F, so he left the Data Room, and went back down the hallway to the elevator, where he had a sudden realization. There was no hemostatic on this floor, and there was no way he could explore any more of 1F, which meant that he was going to have to go down into the basement.

"I'm brave... muy macho." He said to himself as he got into the elevator. "I ain't afraid of no monsters."

With that, a few deep breaths, and reloading of his rifle, Carlos pushed the button marked 3B, and swallowed hard as the elevator started down.


	15. Ch 15 B3

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 15: B3**

Zombies!

At least a dozen of the shambling, flesh-craving monsters were there waiting for him as soon as the elevator doors opened on floor B3, but Carlos already had his rifle aimed at the door simply out of being afraid of basements. The sound of gunfire echoed inside the elevator as he opened fire, and by the time his clip ran out there was only one heavily damaged zombie remaining as it crawled toward him.

"Aye-yai-yai." He said as he stomped it's head into nothing. "Oh well, at least the worst of it is over."

He dropped the empty clip as he stepped out of the elevator, and was about to put in a new one, when there was a flash of movement as the green and red creature from before flew at him from the side. Somehow he managed to move just far enough away so that the outstretched claws his his rifle instead of his neck, but the impact was still powerful enough to knock him down as the weapon and full clip were sent sliding across the floor.

Carlos dove for them, but was stopped abruptly as the creature hooked its claws into his belt and began to drag him down the hall. He kicked the creature and struggled to get away, but this did absolutely nothing to help him... that is... until he remembered the knife in his boot. Quickly pulling his leg in and taking the knife out of the sheath, he tapped the creature on the arm until it looked at him, and then it roared in agony as he plunged the blade into its left eye.

This made the creature jump backwards and let go of him as it tried to remove the knife, and once freed, Carlos got up and ran through the first door he came through, shutting and locking it behind him. This time the creature didn't lose interest, and roared again as it pounded on the door so hard that it shook.

The door would not hold the creature back forever, and he had no weapons, so he needed to come up with a plan. He was now in some kind of medical store room, and there were a few bottles of hemostatic medicine on the shelf, which he put into his side pack along with the bandages that he found earlier.

"Great, now I can save Liquid." He said to himself. "But how do I save _myself_ first?"

Aside from the medicine, there didn't seem to be anything useful in the room at all. No weapons, no tools, hell the only thing around that wasn't in a pill bottle was an old rolled up firehose. Carlos stared at it for a few seconds, and then got an idea that was just crazy enough to maybe work. So he unrolled the firehose and tied one end to a heavy cabinet across the room.

He tied the other end to a heavy pipe so that it was stretched tight in front of the door about half a foot above the floor, and then he prayed to every God that he had ever heard of as he reached over to unlock the door. It flew open the moment the lock was released, and the still enraged creature ran into the room, immediatly falling on its face after tripping over the hose.

The moment it was down, Carlos locked the door again before pulling it closed behind him as he ran back into the hall, and now he sprinted toward the elevator. He was about halfway there when he heard the unmistakable sound of a door being knock off its hinges, and he didn't want to look back as he heard the heavy footsteps chasing him.

Bending down to grab his rifle and clip as he went by was the only thing that slowed him down, and he hit the button marked 1F before he was even all the way in the elevator. The red and green creature was running toward him as the doors slowly closed, and it looked like he was safe, but then its claws blocked the door at the last second.

Carlos tried to reload his rifle as it pulled the doors open, but his hands were too shaky to load the clip. So as soon as the doors were opened far enough to see the creature's face, he used all of his leg muscles to kick the handle of the knife that was still embedded in its eye. This made it roar again as it stumbled backwards, and also allowed the elevator doors to close.

"Hasta luego, puta." He said as the elevator started moving upward.

Now that he had a chance to calm down a little and catch his breath, it was easy to reload his rifle before the doors opened again on floor 1F. There appeared to be no zombies or monsters around, so he quickly moved through the doctor's lounge, and back into the waiting room where he noticed a small beeping object on a nearby support pillar.

"A plastic bomb?!" He exclaimed after taking a closer look.

That was when he heard more beeping, and some of the color drained out of his face when he noticed that there were over a dozen more of these things planted around the room. There was no time to think, only to run out the door and get as far away as he could before...

Suddenly the area around him lit up like it was high noon as the bombs inside the hospital went off, and the explosion sent Carlos flying forward as the whole building was engulfed in flames. There was no time to rest as burning debris began to fall around him, so he crawled on his hands and knees to avoid it until he reached the back door of the clock tower.

Once the ringing in his ears was gone, he was able to get to his feet, only to be knocked down again as the red and green, and now heavily burned, creature rammed into the other side of the door he was closing. It then swiped at him, but he again avoided them at a price. This time they hit his sidepack, tearing it from his belt, and throwing it right into the creature's mouth.

"No!" Carlos yelled as it chewed. "The medicine!"

It chewed a few more times before swallowing the sidepack, and his rifle had already proved useless against this creature, so he scrambled to his feet as he ran past the clock where he had found the gear earlier, and back into the hallway where he had faced the spider. The creature was right on his heels as he reached the end and ran through the door into the main hall, but then he tripped over the leg of one of the tables, and fell on his face.

Rolling back over just in time to see the creature leap toward him for the death blow, all seemed lost until the arm of something very big caught the creature in mid-flight. It was the black coat wearing monster that had been hunting Liquid, and it roared as it lifted the smaller creature over its head, only to effortlessly rip it in half.

A spray of blood fell onto Carlos along with the gold and silver gear that fell into his lap as the monster dropped the two halves of its latest victim onto the floor... and then Carlos froze in place, nearly pissing himself as the monster looked down at him.

"STARS?" It asked as it pointed at him accusingly.

"What?" He found himself stammering. "No, nope, nada, no STARS here, amigo. I'm UBCS."

With shaking hands, Carlos reached into his back pocket and took out the card case, upening it up to show his UBCS identification card. The monster glared at it for a second, and then shrugged as it walked away through the door that Carlos had just come through. His life was saved, but the medicine for Liquid had been lost.

The only remaining items that he could take back from the creature were his knife and the strange gear, so he retrieved them, and waited until the monster's heavy footsteps could no longer be heard before going through the other door. Thankfully the room with the piano was empty, giving him a much needed rest, and then he opened teh door to the small chapel to see...

"Liquid?" He asked.

Yes, it was certainly Liquid, but instead of lying on the bench in agony, he was on his feet and actually looked to be in better condition than Carlos had ever seen him in. His wounds were gone, and he didn't even look tired anymore. Carlos was about to ask how this was possible, but then Liquid took out a large bottle marked: _First Aid Spray_, and tossed it into the trash can.

"I found that under the bench." He explained. "I figured it couldn't possibly hurt me any more than I already was, so I emptied it all over my body, and _poof_, back to 100%. So I guess I won't be needing that medicine any more, but I appreciate you bringing it back for me."

"Uh, yeah... no problem." Carlos said while trying to find a way to avoid the fact that he had no medicine. "Hey, listen; Nikolai is still alive, and he's lost his mind something fierce. He'll probably try to kill us later, so I'm gonna go and, uh, try to take care of it. Oh, and I found this."

He wiped some of the blood off of the gear before handing it to Liquid, and Carlos was about to go out the door, when Liquid stopped him by pushing it closed just as he was opening it.

"Oh no, not this time." Liquid said as he readied his equipment. "This time we're staying together, got it?"

"Uh, sure, loco." Carlos replied. "Whatever you say."

He wasn't sure what Liquid would do if he found out that he would have died without that First Aid Spray, so he figured that he would just avoid the topic as best he could. After all, what he didn't know couldn't hurt either of them. So now that Liquid was back on his feet, the two of them left the chapel.


	16. Ch 16 Ringing The Bell

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 16: Ringing The Bell**

"Wow, did _you_ do that to it?" Liquid asked.

Now fully recovered, Liquid and Carlos had moved back into the mail hall of the clock tower, and the first thing Liquid saw was the decapitated remains of the red and green creature on the floor.

"Oh yeah, homes." Carlos replied as Liquid knelt down to investigate it. "It was like;_ I'm gonna cut off your head and shit down your neck, Ese_, and I was like; _no way, puta, here's a knife in your eye_, and it was like; _damn, that hurts, asshole, now I'm gonna get you_, and well... you can see the rest."

Liquid was listening intently to this story, and was beginning to believe that he had misjudged Carlos. Maybe he was a lot more tough and capible that Liquid had given him credit for... but then he found a few things among the remains of the creature. Things that looked like ripped up bandages and a partially digested bottle of medicine.

"Carlos." Liquid said. "I think you should give me the bandages and medicine you got earlier. I might need them."

Carlos started stammering some kind of made up explenation, but Liquid didn't wait to hear it before picking up the things he had found and tossing them right into Carlos's face. Carlos gasped and wiped the nasty stuff off as he stumbled backwards, and Liquid already had his pistol aimed at him by the time he could see again.

"Okay, loco, I see that you're mad." He esplained. "I found the stuff for you at the hospital, but that creature followed me here and ate them before I could give them to you."

"I see." Liquid replied. "So if I had to have actually relied on you instead of finding that spray bottle, I would have died. Not only that, but then you let me think you were something slightly better than useless, so give me one...

Liquid suddenly trailed off as his brain scrambled as he saw something else laying on the floor near the stairs. Then he holstered his pistol.

"All is forgiven, my friend." He said almost in a trance as he walked away from Carlos.

He walked across the room to the body of yet another UBSC member, and slowly reached down to pick up a large and strange looking weapon. It appeared to be a large rifle, and Liquid's mouth ran dry as he realized what he was holding. And as a bonus, there was a whole bunch of ammo for it that he quickly shoved into his side pack.

"It's a Mine Thrower!" He exclaimed as he hugged the weapon.

"Loco, I gotta tell you something else about the creature." Carlos suddenly said. "I wasn't... actually the one who killed it."

Then as if on cue, there was a roar of absolute rage as the monster that had been hunting him since the police station broke right through the doors on the other side of the room.

"He did." Carlos finished as he pointed.

This time Liquid was ready for it, and he raised the Mine Thrower, but stopped as he realized that the monster was again carrying the Rocket Launcher on its arm... which it was also raising as Liquid turned and ran up the stairs. The monster fired, and the rocket slammed into the stairs just as he had reached the top.

"Liquid!" Carlos yelled as Liquid was sent sliding across the second floor balcony by the blast. "You gotta ring the bell! Ring the bell, and the chopper will come for us!"

The stairs were almost completely destroyed, which gave him a few seconds to get up as the monster was climbing up the rubble, and there was only one door at the end of the balcony, so that's where Liquid ran to. The door led to a stone balcony that was outside, and now the only place for him to go was up a very long ladder which went up toward the bells.

"STARS!" The monster roared as it broke down the door.

There was no way that Liquid could climb the ladder fast enough to get away, especially not while the monster was armed, but there was a searchlight mounted on the nearby guardwall that was aimed in the monster's general direction. Without knowing if the light would even be effective, he ran over to the switch and punched the button.

The monster roared almost in surprise as the intense beam of light went into its eye, and it stumbled back into the guard rail as Liquid aimed the Mine Thrower. It made almost no noise as what looked like a small dart was sent flying into the monster's deformed head, but two seconds later there was a large explosion from it. This made the monster roar as it was blown right through the guardwall, and fall down to where it vanished into the darkness.

"Who's your daddy _now_, you big-face bitch?!" Liquid called after it. "_Liquid_!_ Liquid _is the answer whenever someone asks you that!"

He gave the Mine Thrower a kiss before slinging it over his shoulder like he had done for the shotgun... to which he gave a moment of silence for his lost weapon. There was now nothing to stop him from climbing the ladder, which had to be done carefully since it was still raining, but eventually he came to a small doorwar at the top that led to the room where the bells were controlled.

There was only one machine in the whole place, so it was easy to figure out what needed to be done, especially since there was an exposed gearbox on the side. There was a space for a gear to be set so that the rest of the machine could be activated, and for a moment his heart sank as he realized that he would have to find it, but then he remembered what Carlos had given him.

"Hmm, maybe not quite so worthless after all." He said as he took it out of his sidepack.

The gold and silver gear fit perfectly into the open space, and it allowed the rest of the gears to start turning, which in turn caused the bells to ring so loudly that Liquid had to cover his ears. The whole room shook with each resounding ring, and outside the shaking was so bad that Liquid slipped off the ladder.

He was only a few feet from the balcony when he fell, so there was no serious injury, but now that the bells were ringing he would be able to...

"Oh no." He said as a fimiliar roar came from beyond the guardrail.

He had not expected the monster to be dead, but he had hoped for a little more time considering all of the things he had been doing to damage it. But no, there it was, climbing up over the guardrail with its rocket launcher in hand as the sound of a helicopter began to be heard over the bells.

"STARS!" The monster roared.

There was no time to fight or devise a complicated plan, since the large chopper was now coming into view, and it was probably not going to stay very long once it landed. So Liquid did the first thing he thought of, which was to yank out the searchlight's power cord and toss it at the monster's feet.

It had been raining hard enough for water to start pooling up in the low areas, and the monster just happened to be standing in one of them, so it roared as bright blue electriricy began to flow up and down its body. However, electricity also causes muscles to tense up, including any trigger fingers that happen to be currently holding onto, say, a rocket launcher, for example.

The large weapon went off, and the rocket's minature engine ignited as it shot off across the sky... right into the cockpit of the approaching helicopter. There was a small explosion as it started to spin out of control, and then the aircraft crashed right through the wall around the clock tower in a firey inferno of death.

"STARS!" The monster roared as it reloaded its weapon.

That was it. There wasn't going to be any evacuation chopper, and he was stuck in this dead city with the monster already preparing for its next attack. So in a mixture of rage and panic, Liquid turned around and fired the Mine Thrower in the monster's general direction. By some miracle the explosive dart went into the barrel of the rocket launcher just as it was being aimed, and the resulting explosion had enough force to throw the monster right through the wall into the clock tower as the weapon was destoryed.

Unfortunately it also had enough force to throw Liquid in the opposite direction so that he fell over the guardwall, and landed hard in the courtyard right next to where both the cable car and the helicopter had crashed. Carlos was nowhere in sight, and the monster could be heard roaring from within the clock tower, so Liquid needed to get away.

"Where do I go?" He asked himself as he struggled to get to his feet. "What do I do?"

He looked around for some venue of escape, and that's when he realized that the wall around the clock tower area had been pulverized by the crashing helicopter. He ran for the hole and of course it led to another narrow side street, but it was better than being trapped.

"STARS!" The monster roared as Liquid ran the only way he could.


	17. Ch 17 Raccoon City Park

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 17: Raccoon City Park**

Trying to stay as quiet as he could, Liquid was crouched down against the wall, while just outside the window above his head, the monster was searching. After leaving the clock tower, he had only gone a short distance before the chase was resumed, and luckily the first door he came to was unlocked.

"STARS." It said as it paced around outside.

All Liquid had time to do was lock the door and crouch down by the window in an attempt to stay out of sight, and there was absolutely nothing useful in this small room that looked like an office of some kind, so he was screwed if it saw him through the glass or if he made too much noise. Worst of all... now he had to sneeze.

No, no, no! His mind screamed as he covered his nose and mouth with his hands. He had gone through the whole city without so much as a sniffle, but only now, when silence was the only thing saving his life, did he have to sneeze. Liquid fought it off for as long as he could, but eventually his own back-stabbing body won, and he sneezed loud and hard.

He knew that it was over the moment his sneeze came out, but if that monster wanted him dead, it was gonna _earn_ that death. Aiming the Mine Thrower through the glass at the same time that he jumped to his feet, Liquid was prepared to make his last stand... but the monster was gone.

"Must've wandered off while I was trying not to sneeze." He said to himself.

Now that a dramatic last stand was no longer necesessary, it was time for his emergency plan, which simply stated that if it is ever possible to escape unharmed, do it. So he unlocked the door and quietly left the office, making sure to keep checking over his shoulder as he crept down the narrow side street. Just like in the uptown and downtown areas, all possible ways to go aside from the ones he was on were blocked, so he kept going until a sign came into view.

_WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY PARK_

_$500 FINE FOR LITTERING FOR FIRST OFFENSE_

_CHOP YOUR FINGERS OFF FOR SECOND OFFENSE_

The entrance to the park was not blocked, and he expected to find dogs, or zombies, or other nasty monsters, but none were in sight. In fact, aside from a lot of construction work blocking the other exits, the whole place seemed to be mostly untouched. The playground equipment was still clean, which could have been because of the still falling rain, but there were no bodies, or...

"STARS!" The monster roared as it walked out from behind some of the construction work.

This was the first time that Liquid had gotten a chance to take a good look at it since crashing the cable car, and it seemed that their constant battle was taking its toll on the monster as well. Almost the whole top of its black outfit had been burned off, and a lot of its skin looked a bit more charred and twisted than usual.

It was nice to see that it was at least taking some damage after everything that Liquid had been doing to it, but at the same time it was a little disheartening that after: Being shot a few dozen times, getting blown up by a gas leak, falling from high distances twice, getting electrocuted twice, being blown up by an entire gas station, and having a ceiling collapse on it... a few burns were all it walked away with.

_Oh well_, Liquid thought as he aimed the Mine Thrower toward it. _Here's a few more burns to remember me by_. He pulled the trigger and the dart was sent flying, but this time the monster simply leaned to the side, avoiding it completely. The dart kept going until it hit the twisty-slide, and the child's-favorite was destroyed a few seconds later.

"So you can dodge, huh?" Liquid asked as he aimed a bit lower. "Well, dodge this one then."

He fired this one at the monster's knee, but it simply lifted its foot up really high, causing the dart to miss once again. This time, however, it kept going until it embedded itself into the center of a storm drain, and when the smoke from the resulting explosion cleared a few seconds later, Liquid gasped as he saw that the cover had been blown completely open.

"STARS!" The monster roared as it suddenly ran forward.

Liquid only had one chance to get away, and it was to use the storm drain, but the monster was a lot faster than him. So he waited until it was almost on him before firing an explosive dart into the ground, and dove out of the way at the last second. The monster was unable to stop itself before running right over it, so he took the whole explosion which caused it to fall on its face, sliding a short distance across the water-soaked ground as Liquid ran for it.

He was halfway to safety when the monster roared while getting to its feet, and Liquid sprinted as fast as he could, but the monster was so damn fast that it caught up to him. It tried to grab him from behind, so Liquid dove forward and slid across the water like he was on a Slip N' Slide, and somehow managed to fall into the storm drain just in time to avoid the monster's next grab attempt.

The fall was a bit farther than he expected, but there was about three feet of flowing water at the bottom to break his fall, and the first thing he heard after standing back up was the monster's frustrated roaring as it tried to reach him through the open cover. It was just too big to fit through, and without its rocket launcher it had no way to get to him. It made one last attempt to get in by breaking the concrete, but it must have been really well put together, because it held.

"Yeah, that's right." Liquid said as he gave it the finger. "You can't get me in here, you big, stupid, homo-pyro-pedi-necro-beastifiliac."

The monster glared at him through the hole, and then Liquid cried out in pain as it picked up a small rock and threw it so that it hit him in the thigh. He fell to his hands and knees, putting him underwater as the monster threw more rocks at him, and thankfully only a few more hit him as he got up and ran down the tunnel.

Soon he was out of range, and he could hear the monster roaring as it walked away. However, escaping from the monster did not mean that he was safe, so he readied the Mine Thrower, but surprisingly this well-lit sever tunnel was empty. In fact, nothing got in his way as he reached the other end of the tunnel where a ladder was waiting.

"Where the hell am I now?" He asked as he climbed the ladder. "The supermarket? The Post Office, or...

He trailed off as he reached the top of the ladder where the stormdrain was already open, and stuck his head out to see that he was in the worst possible place. All around him were large stones that served as monuments to the dead, and Liquid considered going back when he realized he was in the graveyard, but then he remembered that the monster was still back there looking for him.

"Of course it's the damn graveyard, where else would I end up?" He asked loudly as he climbed out. "Alright, you dead sons of bitches, let's get started."

His weapon was ready for the first sign of trouble, but nothing happened. Literally nothing was moving except for the trees that shook from the rain hitting them, and that's when Liquid wanted to smack himself for being so stupid. Of course there wouldn't be any zombies there; they were all burried six feet underground, and even if they got reanimated, there would be no way for them to get out.

Also, peoplewould assume that the graveyard would be infested, so they would avoid it, thereby not drawing any of the infected into it, and thus it remained a safe-haven to anyone inside. This meant that he was in no danger at all as he started walking between the headstones, and although he could have easily walked out the other side of the graveyard, a small shack caught his attention. Maybe it would have something useful inside, so he walked over to it and opened the door.

There was a light on inside, but there were no other sounds at all, nor could he see anything of use from where he was standing, so he slowly entered the shack, only to freeze in place as the barrel of a pistol was pressed to the side of his head.

"Welcome to my humble home, comrade." Nikolai said as he pulled the hammer back. "Please... do come in."

"Crap." Was all Liquid could think of to say.


	18. Ch 18 The Beast Returns

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 18: The Beast Returns**

"I'm actually impressed that you've managed to stay alive this long." Nikolai said as he made Liquid move slowly into the shack. "However, your luck is about to run out, and only after I've spent many, _many_ hours torturing your useless capitalist ass, will I consider granting you the sweet release of death. For you see, I am going to walk away from this a very rich man, while you won't be walking anywhere because you will be dead, and...

"Holy shit, Nikolai." Liquid interupted. "Is this really how you're gonna kill me? By boring me to death with speeches? Signal yes by shooting yourself in the head six times."

The russian started to move the gun away from Liquid's head, but then let out a startled gasp as he put it right back.

"Oh, you are a crafty one." Nikolai continued. "But I know your tricks. Now hand over any data you might have collected on Umbrella or any of its experiments, and I might not chop off your balls until _after_ you are dead."

Liquid shrugged as he hung his head in defeat and reached into his jacket pocket. But instead of documents or discs, for he had been too busy trying to save his own ass to stop and collect data, he came out with a handful of dust and sand that he quickly tossed into Nikolai's eyes. The russian screamed as he stumbled back, and then Liquid pulled his leg back in order to kick him squarely in the groin while pulling the gun out of his hands.

"Don't move, you little ass-kabab!" Liquid ordered while pointing the gun at him. "Now put up your hands or I'll shoot you in the right foot."

Nikolai put up his hands as soon as he was able to see again, and Liquid immediatly shot him in the left foot. The russian fell over while howling in pain, and he tried to crawl toward the door, but Liquid put a bullet in the floor right in front of his hand, making him stop.

"You little penis-pump!" Liquid yelled. "Everyone still alive in this city is out fighting for their lives, and you're concerned about _money_? I oughta make you suck the barrel of this gun like its a dick, and when it cums, its gonna blow your mind. That was not a request, whore."

Nikolai looked up at Liquid to see if he was serious, and he was, so the russian started to crawl over to him, when the shack suddenly began to shake. It shook so hard, in fact, that both of them were knocked off their feet, and this allowed Nikolai to grab his gun again. Whatever he was going to do next was stopped by a roar that Liquid had only heard once before, and it was enough to make the russian stumble his way out the door.

"Another mutant!" He yelled as he hobbled away. "I hope it shits you out as diarehea!"

Liquid got up and ran out after him, but he had not taken two steps from the shack, when the ground collapsed underneath his feet. This was not a little break like what had happened back in the downtown area, but a massive quake that started with all the tombstones in the graveyard shaking, and ended with everything within fifty yards of the shack falling down about twenty feet. Liquid landed in a small puddle of water, and he looked up just in time to see Nikolai getting away on the unaffected area.

"So long, comrade!" The russian called over his shoulder as he vanished.

"Your _mom's_ a comrade!" Liquid found himself yelling back.

Sure, the insult made no sense, but now he had bigger things to worry about as he took the Mine Thrower off his shoulder. For he now heard that unmistakable roar again, but this time he had a weapon that-

Suddenly the ground moved underneath him, and the gigantic catterpillar monster that he had encountered in the sewer tunnel came leaping toward him with giant fangs open. Instinctively he jumped backwards, but it wasn't far enough to get out of the way, so he dove sideways, but the horrible jaws had found their target. Just as it had once done with his shotgun, the monster latched onto his weapon and ripped it from his hands as dove past him, vanishing back under the ground a second later.

"No!" Liquid screamed as he realized what it had just done. "Not again!"

For a moment he was filled with rage at the loss of a second weapon to this creature, but then his brain started working again, and he realized that he didn't _have_ to fight at all. This wasn't a close-quarters maintenance tunnel that he was in, it was a rather large graveyard, and there had to be _something_ that he could use to escape.

The creature roared as it flew out of the ground, and Liquid just barely managed to avoid this one as it burrowed its way back into the dirt. It would only be a matter of time before it tried again, so Liquid had to do something fast. So he scanned the peremeter of the well lit depression that he was trapped in, and in the light from the fallen street lamps he was only able to...

"The street lamps!" Liquid yelled as he started running.

The catterpillar thing seemed to come at him more than usual as he sprinted toward the other side of the depression, and his goal was one of the very lights that were illuminating his way. A lot of them were tilted over because of the quake, but one was down so far that it was actually sticking down a ways into the depression where Liquid might have been able to grab it if he had the chance.

Behind him he could feel the ground rumbling as the creature closed in, and a few seconds later Liquid reached his goal. He and the creature both leapt up at the same time; Liquid reaching for the pole while the creature's massive fore-jaws reached for his flesh. However, the pole was a little higher than he thought, and this error caused him to fly right under it as the creature crashed into the side of the depression.

Liquid ate the dirt as he slid across the muddy ground, and the creature crashed to the ground a second later, but this time it did not come after him. In fact, it didn't do much of anything as he sat there staring at it, and then he realized why. The street light had broken off of its mount up above, and was now deeply impaled into the creature's head. In actuallity the creature had killed itself, but this did not stop Liquid from putting his foot onto its carcas and putting up his arms in victory.

"That's what you get for eating my Mine Thrower!" He shouted to the still raining sky. "Behold the fate of all who would challenge the awesome power of me! Can I get a _hell yeah_?!"

He listened, but there was still no one around to grant his request, so he would have to be satified by the fact that he had just killed something that could have starred in a _Tremors_ movie. The pole might have been gone, but the dead creature itself was now slumped against the wall like a ramp, so Liquid slowly climbed his way out, and took a moment to urinate on the carcas before moving on.

"And _that_ was for my shotgun." He said as he zipped up his pants. "Jerkweed."

Now that he had escaped this latest death trap, and now there was no sign of zombies or of Nikolai, so Liquid decided to continue on. It sucked only having a pistol left to defend himself, but hopefully once he was out of the graveyard he would be able to avoid the rest of the things trying to eat him as he stealthed his way out of the city.

After a minute or two, he came to the back wall of the graveyard, and it wasn't very tall, so he easily scaled it. The rain was coming down even harder now as he landed on the other side of the wall onto what looked like a hiking trail, and there were some lights in the distance, so he followed them until he came to an old wooden bridge.

On the other side of the bridge was a large building where the lights were coming from, not the building itself, but the broken fence around it. Still no sign of zombies, so he decided that this was his best bet for now, at least until he could rest for a bit. So he carefully stepped onto the wooden bridge, and sighed with relief as he realized that it wasn't about to break.

"STARS." A horribly fimiliar voice said from behind him.


	19. Ch 19 A Dead Factory

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 19: A Dead Factory**

Liquid backed up onto the bridge as the monster approached, and he tried desperately to think of a plan as it kept hitting its massive fist into its other open hand. If there was ever a time that he wished to still have his Mine Thrower, it was now, because all he had left to defend himself was his pistol and a bunck of useless explosive darts in his...

"STARS." The monster said again as Liquid backed up to the halfway point.

Maybe there _was_ a way out of this, and the plan was just crazy enough to work, so he opened his sidepack, grabbed all of the darts, and dropped them onto the bridge. Stepping back a little faster to get a safe distance away, Liquid drew his pistol and aimed at the dart pile, pulling the trigger just as the monster was stepping over them.

The monster roared as Liquid was sent reeling backwards by the blast that resulted, and that section of the bridge was disintegrated, causing the monster to roar again as it fell into the darkness below. Liquid stumbled back until he reached the other side of the bridge, where he fell into the dirt, and then almost instinctively jumped up to run away.

With his luck, the ground would only be a few feet below the bridge, so not wanting to risk it, he turned and sprinted toward the large building. The ringing in his ears and pouring rain made it really hard to hear anything at all as he ran past the illuminated fence, and thankfully the heavy front door was unlocked. Running inside, Liquid slammed the door shut and put a heavy bar down to lock it behind him, but now he was in darkness.

Apparently whoever had turned the lights on for the fence outside had neglected to do the same for the rest of the building, because Liquid literally could not see his hand in front of his face. The ringing in his ears was stopping now, and the rain outside suddenly stopped, leaving this place not only completely dark, but silent as well.

"Where is it?" He asked himself as he searched his pockets. "I know it's here somewhere."

Finally his fingers closed around the small zippo lighter in his pocket, and he held it high over his head so that when it lit, the orange light allowed him to see that he was in a hallway. The floors and walls were metal, and all the plumbing and electrical wiring ran along the walls, leading him to believe that this place was some kind of defunct power plant or maybe a dead factory.

Nothing moved as he followed the hallway with his pistol aimed in front of himself, and except for his own footsteps echoing off the walls, there was no sound at all. A few seconds later he came to a door on the left, so he quietly opened it, and then screamed in fright as a bright light shined into his eyes. The one holding the light also screamed as they both jumped backwards, but then while aiming their weapons at each other, Liquid was able to see who it was.

"Carlos?!" Liquid exclaimed. "Holy crap, I almost shot you... and I still might."

"Oh, hey, Loco." Carlos replied as they both got up. "I thought you got turned inside out by that monster or something, but I'm glad you're here... this place is spooky, man."

It was good to run into someone who was neither a zombie nor Nikolai, so Liquid decided not to shoot him, since Carlos had an assault rifle while he was left with only a pistol. So they searched the room for a light switch, found one after a while, but it didn't work. Looks like the power to the building was cut off, so they were in the dark for the time being.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." Carlos said. "I got good news and I got bad news, Ese, and the good news is that we're both still alive... so yay for that. The bad news is that I ran into one of the few remaining mission supervisors who wouldn't let me get into the escape vehical with him... asshole... anyway he said that at daybreak they're gonna nuke the city, and, uh, that sucks."

"Are you fucking serious?!" Liquid yelled. "We have to get out of here! We have to... wait a second, how the hell do we even _get_ out of here?!"

There were no other doors leading out of this room, so the two of them decided to venture back into the hall, with Carlos taking the lead since his weapon had a flashlight on it. The narrow hallway soon opened up into a more open area with destroyed control panels along one wall and a guardrail on the other side, but the flashlight wasn't powerful enough to let them see what was below it.

"All right, I _know_ this place has power." Liquid said as they looked around. "I'm gonna check over here for a breaker box or something, and you see if you can't find anything else here."

He used his lighter again to light the way as he moved to the other side of the open area where he found a _very_ heavy door that was slightly ajar. It was difficult, but he slowly managed to push it open the rest of the way so that he could get inside. This room was also completely dark, which meant that it would have to be explored slowly.

"Hey, Loco, I found something." Carlos called. "Hold on a second."

Suddenly the silence was broken by the sound of a large circuit being completed, and a series of flourescent lights activated along the ceiling. This was good news, since now Liquid could see that he was in some kind of disposal chamber where garbage and bodies had been left for who knew how long, but it was also bad because there was a loud metallic _bang_ as the heavy door slammed shut.

"Hey!" Liquid yelled as he ran back to the door. "Carlos, I'm trapped!"

He pulled, pushed, and pounded on the door, but nothing seemed to work. Then something moved behind him, and he spun around while aiming his pistol to see a figure come out from behind a junk pile.

"Welcome, my capitalist friend." Nikolai said as he aimed his own pistol. "I can hardly believe that you survived an attack from the Gravedigger mutant, but your luck is about to run out. You see, that door can only be opened from outside, and well, Carlos is too stupid to figure it out."

"Let me see if I understand what you're saying." Liquid replied. "So your plan was to get trapped in here with me, and if Carlos can't open the door, you intend to get out _how_, exactly?"

The russian let out a laugh as he started to say something, but then his eyes widened as if in realization as to what he had just done to himself. A moment later he shook it off, and returned his attention to Liquid.

"Regardless, only one of us will have the chance to find a way out." Nikolai said. "You and I have been at odds since the beginning, and it always ends at a draw when weapons are involved, so I say we get rid of them. So throw away your weapon, and face me like a man."

The russian suddenly tossed his pistol away before putting up his fists, and Liquid immediatly shot him in the chest. This was followed by three more shots that hit him two more times in the torso and once in the head, making the startled and now dead russian collapse to the floor. Liquid then walked over and picked up Nikolai's pistol before searching the body.

"That was a very honorable thing you did, Nikolai." Liquid said as he took the russian's ammo. "However, I'm an American... and we don't fight fair."

Now with at least a second weapon of some kind, Liquid started back toward the door in hopes that Nikolai was lying, but then he stopped as the heavy door started to swing open. Carlos waved to him once it had opened all the way, and Liquid walked toward him, but was suddenly filled with horror at what he saw next.

"STARS." The monster said as it climbed over the guardrail behind Carlos.

Carlos had no time to react before it backhanded him out of the way, and he appeared to be unconsious when he hit the floor. As for Liquid, he backed up as the monster came in through the doorway and pulled the door closed again behind itself. This time when the door was closed, there was a beeping sound, and several _clicks_ as locking bars slid into place.

"Warning, maximum biohazard material level reached." A deep male computer voice said. "Proceding with disposal operation in five minutes."

Liquid was trapped with the monster, and Carlos was out cold so he couldn't open the door, while something _really_ bad was going to happen in five minutes. Now without his heavy weapons, or any useful tools of any kind, this time he would have to defeat the monster on his own.

"STARS." It said again as it approached.


	20. Ch 20 Fight The Monster

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 20: Fight The Monster**

Aiming both pistols, Liquid began firing, and the bullets slammed into the monster's legs, torso, and head without making it so much as twitch. The monster just shook its head while Liquid quickly reloaded, and the monster started to crack its knuckles as it approached. Liquid didn't have very many bullets left, so he put his own pistol back into the holster, while now trying to use Nikolai's to find some sort of weak point in his opponent.

"STARS." It said again.

Liquid aimed at and shot several points on the monster's massive body while backing away, but nothing was working. Then the gun clicked empty, and out of desperation he tossed it at his enemy. The monster tilted its head to avoid being hit, but then the pistol hit some kind of release lever on an open pipe that was right behind it.

"_Four minutes to processing sequence_." The computer voice said.

The monster roared as it was sprayed with a stream of green acidic material, and when the flow stopped a moment later, it had appeared to take a lot of damage to the point of having to take a knee for a minute. A good portion of its body had been charred and was now smoldering, and when it got up, Liquid noticed that it was no longer moving quite so smoothly when it advanced.

"So you _can_ be hurt." Liquid said as he looked around the room.

There were a few other pipes at regular intervals along the walls, but there was no time to figure out a way to get the monster over to them, as the monster roared and came running toward him at full speed. The only thing he could do was run away, so he turned around and started climbing up the nearest pile of junk and bodies.

The monster was right behind him, and it was harder to climb the easily shifting pile than Liquid thought, so he had to constantly jump and move his feet to keep from getting grabbed. There would be nowhere to go once he reached the top of the pile and he would be trapped, but then the whole pile shifted as it poured over the monster like an avalanch, and burrying it as Liquid rode the pile down to the floor.

"_Three minutes to processing sequence_." The computer voice said.

The nearest pipe was right next to where he had ended up, and the monster was already freeing itself from the collapsed pile, so Liquid pushed the release lever, making it roar again as the stream washed over it just as it was getting up. Most of the junk and bodies around it were evaporated on contact from the strange green acid, but the monster was still alive... although now even more burned and a bit smaller than before. It was still bigger than Liquid, but not quite as much.

"STARS." It said as it got up.

The monster seemed a little disoriented, and it stumbled a bit as it looked around. So Liquid shot it a few more times, and this time it twitched from each hit while growling. In response it grabbed for him, but it was a lot easier to avoid than usual as it stumbled forward. This filled Liquid with overconfidence as he reloaded his pistol, and that allowed the monster to backhand him so hard that he was knocked off his feet.

His vision went white for a second as the pistol flew from his hands, and Liquid was sent rolling and bouncing across the floor where he crashed against the wall. Now he and the monster were both disoriented and dizzy as they got to their feet, and unfortunately the monster recovered first. Liquid's vision was still tilted to the side as it came running at him with a punch that would surely mean death, and in his rather pathetic attempt to avoid it, he ended up tripping over his own feet.

"_Two minutes to processing sequence_." The computer voice said.

Liquid fell back to the floor as the monster's punch went right over him, and it was unable to stop itself as its fist went right into one of the pipe openings. This was Liquid's only chance to get away, but he was only up to his hands and knees before the monster ripped its hand free of the opening, along with part of the pipe itself. This caused a torrent of green acid to spray out, most of which hit the monster, but some also splashed onto Liquid.

He screamed as his vision came back into view, and he managed to take off his jacket and toss it away before most of the acid burned through. A little of it got to his skin, and it burned more than anything he had ever felt before, but the monster now seemed to be worse off than he was, even with the pain he was feeling.

There was now not a single unburned spot on its much smaller body, and its left arm was gone, along with... its head? The monster's head had been completely burned off like the arm, but it looked like it was still going to attack, that is... until it made a kind of gurgling sound and fell over. A puddle of purple goo began to form around it like some kind of blood, and this time it didn't get up. It took a second, but Liquid finally realized that he had won, so he ignored the pain in his back in order to beat his chest while giving his best _Tarzan_ yell.

"_One minute to processing sequence_." The computer voice said.

An alarm began to sound throughout the room as some kind of engine began to warm up, and that's when Liquid saw the grooves in the floor along with hinges at the sides as if the floor were about to drop out from under him. There wasn't much time left so he ran back to the door, and pounded on it as hard as he could.

"Carlos!" He screamed. "Carlos, wake the fuck up, or I'm going to die!"

"_Thirty seconds to processing sequence_." The computer voice said.

There was no answer, and he was literally out of time, so he ran back and forth across the room in the vain hope of finding a service hatch, emergency stop button, or something. Hovever there was nothing to be found, and he was running past the monster's body, when the engines he had heard before started up. As he suspected, the floor fell open as all of the junk and bodies were sent sliding down a metal ramp, and there was nothing he could do about it.

When the floor opened enough for him to fall, he ended up landing on top of the monster's body, and riding it down the ramp like a sled until they hit a large tank of the same green acidic substance that was in the pipes. The monster's body slid across the surface of the acid for a second before it slowly started to sink, and this looked like the end for Liquid, but then he saw the guardrail of an observation platform a short distance away.

"One chance." He said as the monster's body sank more. "This will be the jump of a lifetime."

Fortunately, the monster's body moved him a little closer before Liquid was forced to jump for it, and his enemy's body sank all the way as he flew through the air. Liquid crashed into the guardrail and almost bounced backwards into the acid as he struggled to grab hold, but he managed to get his hand on the top rail.

"Carlos!" He called as he pulled himself over the rail and landed on the platform. "Carlos, can you hear me? I don't know where I am!"

"Loco, is that you?" Carlos's voice said from above. "Holy shit, you got more lives than el gato, Ese."

Liquid looked up, and saw that Carlos was looking down from the guardrails that he had seen on the floor above before going into the processing room. This meant that he only had to go back up one floor, but he was also now without a weapon, and there was no obvious way in sight to get back up there.

"Looks like I'm stuck down here." Liquid called up. "Unless you've got a rope or something, I'm gonna have to find a different way up."

"Okay." Carlos replied. "Hey, I'll keep looking for a way out while you do that... see you soon, Loco."

With that, Carlos vanished from sight, and once again alone, Liquid began his search for a way out. The good news was that Nikolai and the monster were dead, but the bad news was the new alarm sounding through the factory.

"_Warning, missile attack confirmed_." The same computer voice from before said. "_Emergency level D... all personnel evacuate_."


	21. Ch 21 Emergency Level D

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 21: Emergency Level D**

Wondering why a facility such as this would even have a missile attack alert system, Liquid moved away from the observation platform as the monster's remains continued to send up bubbles through the acid. There was only one door in the room, so he went through it and found himself in some kind of monitor room.

There was no time to investigate the room, being that the alarms were still going off throughout the building, so he ran over to the door across the room, only to find it electronically locked. There was some kind of display plate on the wall next to the doorhandle, and it read:

_ROOM LOCKDOWN IN EFFECT_

_WATER QUALITY SAMPLE ERROR_

_PERFORM MANUAL CHECK_

"What the hell?" He asked as he looked at it. "They lockdown the room to keep the workers _inside_ when there's an error?"

There was no time to get into a fight with an inamimate object, especially after his embarressing defeat at the hands of the moving van back downtown, so he looked around at the consoles around the room to see what it was talking about. Like in the other areas of this dead factory, most of the equipment was destroyed, except for a single console that was lit up.

"All right, let's see." Liquid said to himself as he read the directions on the panel. "Step one: Insert clean water sample into marked slot. Step two: Manually adjust the three wavelengths to match the sample with stored water readings. Step three: Open the door."

It was easy to find the opening where the clean sample was to be poured, and the controls were pretty straight forward, but where were the samples? He looked around the room until he found a container marked SAMPLES, but when he opened the lid it was empty except for a note at the bottom which read:

_IF THIS BOX IS EMPTY, CALL THE HELP DESK FOR ANOTHER SAMPLE WHICH WILL ARRIVE IN 3-6 WEEKS, AND THEN TRY TO REMEMBER HOW TO DO YOUR DAMN JOB._

_HELP DESK NUMBER: HA-HA, THERE IS NO HELP DESK, FUCKER. I TOOK THE SAMPLES SO YOU'D BE TRAPPED. I HOPE SLEEPING WITH MY WIFE WAS WORTH STARVING TO DEATH IN THERE, YOU ASSHOLE._

"Well, that's just fucking great!" He yelled as he smashed the container against the wall. "No samples for the test, and the missiles are probably already on their way! Actually... fuck it, I got a _sample_ for them."

He walked angrily over to the console, unzipped his pants, and sighed with relief as he urinated into the cleam sample slot. The machine began to blink and beep as he was zipping up, and then it displayed an error message as sparks began to fly from the monitors. A few seconds later the console shut down and began to emanate black smoke as the locked door also beeped. So Liquid went back to it and tried the knob, and this time it opened.

Now free from the sample room, he ran down the long hallway that he found himself in, which ended at the bottom of a staircase. It only took a few seconds to get up there, and when he opened the door he found himself on the other side of the open area where he had become trapped in the processing room.

This meant that Carlos couldn't have gotten far in the short time it took for him to _work out _the water puzzle, and thankfully there were still no signs of zombies or anything as he went back into the first hallway. Everything to the right had already been explored, so he went left and found that the hallway ended at another door about fifteen feet away. This door had been left slightly ajar as if someone had gone through recently, so he went in and found himself inside of what looked like an air-traffic control tower.

"Carlos?" Liquid called as he looked around.

Everything in this room was trashed as well, although there was some kind of emergency hatch at the center, which he was about to investigate when one of the radios started to beep. So he went over to it and pushed the button.

"Hey, Loco, is that you in the tower?" Carlos's voice asked. "I think its you, but I'm kinda far away to tell for sure... I'm sorry to say this, but all you gringos look alike, you know? But hey, good news: There was a helicopter left down here, and I think I can fly it. So just, um, head down the hatch behind you, and follow the path to me."

The radio went dead before he could respond, but if there was a chance to get out of this place alive, he was going to take it, even if it meant trusting the piloting skills of an idiot like Carlos. The hatch was already unlocked, and it swung down to reveal a ladder which Liquid wasted no time in descending. He was now outside at the beginning to some kind of junkyard or something, and the bad news was that there were a few zombies shambling around.

He might have been unarmed, but most of them he could avoid just by keeping away, and as for the ones he couldn't... well, after all of his fights with the monster, it was pretty easy to give them a few well placed punches to the head. It didn't kill them, but it did knock them down long enough for him to run by, and soon he came to another building that looked like some kind of large hangar. Whatever its purpose was, he ran in through the metal double-doors, and stopped in his tracks at what he saw.

Tyrants!

Umbrella's ultimate bio-weapons... dead ones... just laying all over the floor. There were people as well; soldiers by the look of their armor, and most of them still had their weapons. One had a Broken Butterfly magnum revolver with only enough ammo to fill the cylinder, so Liquid grabbed and loaded it before putting it into his holster. Another nearby soldier had a weapon as well, and he almost couldn't believe it when he picked it up.

"A fully loaded M66 Rocket Launcher?" He asked as he looked at it. "Well, this would have been nice to have at _any point _during this whole shitstorm. But of course I find it now when I already defeated the monster."

It might still have been worth some money after escaping, so he slung it over his shoulder as he started across the room, only to stop again and almost shit himself at what he saw next. It was a gigantic weapon labled _Rail Launcher _that was far to big to even be mounted onto a truck, and it was hooked up to a still-functioning computer system that Liquid would have loved to play around with if the whole city wasn't about to get nuked.

"Sorry, baby, no time for fun." He said to it almost sadly. "But don't worry, I got your little sister here to keep me company."

He patted his rocket launcher as he walked past the Rail Launcher, and sur eenough there was another door in the corner of the room. However, just like in the sample room, it was electronically locked. The only thing still functioning was the Rail Launcher's computer system, so he was about to see if he could use that to unlock the door, when a strange noise came from above.

He looked up just in time to see something horrible fall from an opening in the ceiling. It looked like a large piece of a human torso with a single arm reaching out to pull it along, and it took Liquid a second to realize that it was the remains of the monster. It landed next to one of the dead Tyrant creatures, and Liquid was unslinging his rocket launcher when it started doing something strange.

There was some kind of mouth where he guessed the torso's stomach would have been, and it appeared to be feeding off of the dead Tyrant. The worst part was that before Liquid could ready the launcher, the remains of the monster began to grow. Not only grow, but it also seemed to be regenerating, not into the same creature as before, but into a gigantic and freaky nightmare with all new limbs and what looked like a lot tougher skin.

"SSSSSSTTTTTTTAAAAAAARRRRRRSSSSSSSS!" It screamed as it slowly turned toward him.


	22. Ch 22 Last Escape

**Liquid's Punishment (Anniversary Release)**

**Chapter 22: Last Escape**

The whole room shook almost to the point of Liquid falling over as the mutated monster took that first step in crawling toward him. It's armor was impressive, it's roar was terrifying, and it was out for blood... but this time Liquid was not scared as he brought the rocket launcher up to his shoulder.

"You want STARS?" He asked as he aimed. "I'll give you STARS."

He pulled the trigger, and a large rocket flew out of his weapon, causing a massive explosion as it struck the monster in the face. A huge cloud of smoke was kicked up as the blast died down, and all was quiet, so Liquid put down the launcher as he went back to examining the computer system of the Rail Launcher.

"_Checking system_." A booming voice echoed throughout the room. "_Checking battery... Rail Launcher online... warming up capacitors... stand by_."

He hoped that this would somehow release the lock on the door, and a few seconds later the giant weapon began to hum as power started to flow into it, but then another horriffic roar filled the room as the smoke died down to reveal that the monster was still alive. Not only alive... but the direct hit from a rocket iddn't seem to have done anything.

"Maybe I wasn't clear the first time!" Liquid yelled as he brought up the rocket launcher onto his shoulder. "Here, let me say it three more times for you!"

He fired all three rockets, one after another, until the weapon was empty, and the monster roared as the explosions caused cracks to form in the reinforced walls. The rocket launcher was useless now, so he tossed it on the floor while waiting for the smoke to clear. This time there was no roar or movement, and it looked like he had finally done it.

"SSSSTTTTAAAARRRRSSSS!" The monster suddenly roared as it crawled out of the fading smoke.

Liquid was now officially out of ideas, and besides that, there was nowhere to run. The door he wanted to use was still electronically locked, and as the smoke cleared he saw that door he had come in from was now twisted and bent beyond any hope of use. He was trapped... in a huge empty room with a bunch of dead people, and he couldn't even move as the monster got closer... and closer.

"_Preparing to fire_." The Rail Launcher's computer suddenly said. "_5-4-3-2-1... firing_."

Suddenly the barrel of the gigantic weapon erupted into a blast of energy that struck the monster in the side, making it roar as it was thrown back across the room. It crashed into the wall as the weapon began charging again, and some of its limbs as well as most of its armor had been completely restroyed. It had a little trouble getting up, but once it did, the monster resumed its pursuit of Liquid by crawling forward.

"_5-4-3-2-1_." The computer counted again. "_Firing_."

The weapon erupted again, and this time the monster had nothing to shield itself from the raw destructive power of the Rail Launcher. There was an explosion like before at it was hit in the center, and its remaining limps were blown off to the point where it looked just like it had when it fell from the ceiling.

"Rail Launcher... overheating." The computer said. "Entering cooldown mode... releasing electronic locks."

The wespon powered down as the panel on the door beeped, and for a moment Liquid wondered why the door would have been tied to the weapon, but this was quickly forgotten as he walked toward it. Hopefully this would be the last obsticle between himself and freedom, and his hand was on the handle when there was a sound from behind him.

"You have _got_ to be shitting me." He said as he turned around.

Yes, the monster was still alive, but it was nothing but a partial torso with a mouth crawling toward him, so Liquid had a choice to make. It was no threat to him in this condition, so he could easily just go through the door and ignore it... or he could take the magnum revolver out of his holster and finish the abomination for good. So he drew the revolver, and aimed while walking toward the monster.

"This is for Brad!" Liquid yelled as he fired the first shot. "And this is for Mikhail, even though I didn't like him that much!"

The first two bullets slammed into what remained of the monster's body, causing it to groan weakly while twitching heavily, but Liquid still had four more bullets left, and he intended to use them all.

"This is for chasing me all over the city like an asshole!" He yelled as he shot again. "This is for blowing up my escape helicopter like a dickhead, and this is for being a nasty no-good son of a pig-fucking transvestite! Now let's try this shit again... you want STARS... I'll give you STARS, you piece of shit!"

The final bullet slammed into the monster's mouth, and this time what remained of its body started to convulse as it let out one last groan. Then it began to hiss as the whole thing slowly melted into a puddle of purple goo, and Liquid spit into it before running through the now unlocked door. For some reason it locked again behind him, but that was fine since the only thing in this new room was a service elevator.

"Going up." He said as he got in and pressed the button. "Preferably _before_ the missile hits."

It only took a few seconds for the service elevator to bring him up to the surface, and thankfully the first thing he saw was Carlos waving to him from inside the cockpit of a helicopter with the rotors already turning. He had no desire to stay in this place even a minute longer, so he ran over to the chopper, and jumped in through the open side door.

"Hey, Loco, you made it." Carlos said as Liquid pulled the door shut. "Now sit down and buckle in, because we're gonna fly."

Liquid got into the seat and put on the safetybelt as the helicopter left the ground, and soon they were high in the air, leaving what remained of Raccoon City behind forever. Not a minute later the missile came into view, and flew right past them on its way to the center of the city. It exploded in the air above city hall, and the nuclear shockwave that followed quickly spread through the city as it destroyed absolutely everything.

The last edge of the shockwave shook the helicopter, making Liquid grip the seat as he closed his eyes, and when he opened them everything was different. Carlos, the helicopter, and the exploding Raccoon City were gone, replaced by a peaceful desert landscape where the only sound was that of Xing Li slowly applauding.

"Well done, Liquid, well done." He said happily. "I have to say, I didn't think you'd get past the police station, but it was entertaining nonetheless."

Exausted, Liquid sunk to a sitting position on the ground, and Xing offered him a cigerette along with a light which he greedily accepted.

"So, you defeated the Nemesis and escaped from Raccoon City." Xing continued as they both smoked. "But don't fool yourself by thinking that this is over... you see... I don't like to lose, and at the same time, I've been in need of a new hobby, so look at that... two birds with one stone, if you'll forgive the cliche."

"What are you talking about?" Liquid asked. "I passed your little test, so I'm free to go."

"Oh, indeed you are... for now. It will take me a while to create your next punishment, so by all means... enjoy your little respite while you can."

Xing threw his head back and began to laugh menacingly as Liquid got to his feet. Liquid had honestly had enough fighting for one day, so he turned away and began to run across the desert in order to get as far away from him as possible. Sure, he might be tormented again some day, but for now he was the winner, and there was no way he was going to wait around for Xing to change his mind about letting him go.


End file.
